The Blade Of Influence
by Fenris1872
Summary: Discontinued From My Other Profile
1. Chapter 1

Naruto couldn't stop himself from smiling as he felt his body go cold, he could literally feel the life seeping out of him but he knew one thing, he had at least managed to seriously wound that traitor Kabuto.

So it was with a grin that he felt his life slipping away, knowing that he had fulfilled Tsunade's requirement for her to return to Konoha and heal Sasuke and Lee. So despite knowing that he would never become Hokage, he would die happy in the knowledge that at least his friends would carry on.

Suddenly he found himself suddenly jerked back to consciousness and with surprising energy bolted upright, only to see something that made him confused.

A buxom blonde with a jewel on her forehead and her hair tied into a pair of ponytails was looking at the ground behind him with gritted teeth and watering eyes, prompting him to look at where she was looking before his mind froze.

There, laying on the ground, was himself, a large metal chain attached to his chest that he noted connected with one on his own. It didn't take long for him to come to a simple conclusion, he had finally died, a conclusion that was reinforced by Tsunade's cries of 'you can't die here, come on'.

Once again he couldn't stop himself from smiling, he now knew that at the very least he had died with someone that cared at his side.

He was suddenly broken out of his musings upon seeing a pale skinned man he knew as Orochimaru practically flying towards the woman with a sword erupting from a snake in his mouth.

Instantly he knew that the dark haired sannin was aiming to kill the blonde that was trying desperately to save him, however the first thought that popped into his head was simple, _"wait! If I'm a ghost then… how can I help Baa-chan?!"_

It was with gritted teeth that he tried to come up with something that could help the slug sannin, quickly forcing himself to try and gather chakra in his hand like he did with his rasengan.

Feeling nothing coming and still seeing the treacherous snake zooming towards the medical professional, Naruto closed his eyes and focused even more, only to feel something he had never felt before, making his eyes jerk open.

The sight that greeted him was most certainly not what he expected, instead of seeing the open plain ravaged by the battle of the three legendary ninja, he was instead in what looked almost like a throne room.

"Huh?" was all that escaped his mouth before he suddenly found himself being tackled to the (surprisingly soft) ground.

"SHUKUN(1)! I'M SO HAPPY YOU'VE FINALLY ARRIVED!" the yell was deafening and the spiky haired blond could do little more than try to wrap his head around what this stranger had said… before his body went rigid upon realising what this person had called him.

"Wait! Who are…" he suddenly found his words caught in his throat upon seeing the person before him. It was a young girl, with peachy skin, a heart shaped face, long blonde hair tied into a pair of large pig tails, while her bright blue eyes shone at him with nothing but adoration. The final part of her appearance that made Naruto freeze however was the set of whisker like birthmarks marring her cheeks.

"Y-you're," he started only to get cut off by the girl who he refused to look at the body of.

"Yep! I'm (bzzt)," the girl said with a grin reminiscent of his own, while her name seemed to be blocked out by a strange static sound, "it's so great to finally get to meet you when you're conscious."

"I… I… I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch your name," the spiky haired youth said as his entire body shook with barely restrained nerves… honestly how the hell had his Oiroke no jutsu appeared here? And just for clarity where the hell was here in the first place?

Upon hearing the young genin's statement the girl suddenly looked down with a small hint of depression written on her face.

"I see, so you're not ready to hear my name yet," she muttered quietly before giving a firm nod and looking back up at him and offering a smile, "well that doesn't matter, we've got all the time in the world for that."

"S-sorry but can you please explain what's going on?" the whiskered boy asked what could probably only be described as his counterpart.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot, anyway, this place is your mindscape," she informed the other blond with an infectious smile that was promptly ignored in favour of a firm statement.

"No it isn't," Naruto may have been an idiot but he wasn't a fool, he had already been to his mindscape and knew what it looked like during his encounter with his tenant and this was completely different.

"Tell me shukun, what does this look like to you?" she asked him while spreading her arms to indicate the room they currently occupied, making the young boy look at her body only to let out a sigh of relief upon seeing that she was wearing what appeared to be a dancers outfit of a bright orange bra, with a matching ankle length skirt with a slit going down the side to display enough leg to be erotic, while a pair of raised heel sandals adorned her feet.

"Uh… a throne room," he quickly said earning a nod off the orange clad woman.

"Correct, now where would you find a throne room?" she asked him, once again making him think about where she was going with this line of questioning.

"A palace," once again she nodded before asking her final question.

"And what do you find underneath a palace?" it was that question that explained everything to the blond.

"A dungeon… the Kyūbi's in a dungeon!" the happy smile he received in exchange for his answer made him accept that it did actually make sense however what really didn't make any sense was this woman's presence here, "so who are you?"

"I am (bzzt) the sword of your soul," she informed him with a soft tone, "as soon as you pull out your true power, I can be with you outside of this palace."

"If I pull out my 'true power' as you call it, will I be able to protect Tsunade-obaachan?" the answer he received wasn't what he expected.

"I don't know…" it was obvious that the woman wasn't lying to him, however she also seemed rather sad at her statement, "I don't know if you'll be able to interact with the physical world or not in a spirit body, which is exactly what you are but it won't hurt to try will it?"

"Yeah, you're right, so how do I find this power you're talking about?" the orange clad shinobi asked her, earning a warm smile from her.

"It is your power, feel it out and pull on it like you would with your chakra," she explained to him, earning a grateful smile off the blond who simply closed his eyes and tried to locate a source of great power within his body.

Despite his focus on finding this new power he had no idea about, his mind kept thinking back to the whole reason he was here, Tsunade needed him to save her and he didn't know what had happened since his death.

It was with haste in his soul that he found a power unlike anything he had ever felt before and with a sharp tug, it was released.

"Congratulations shukun, please visit me again soon," the unnamed sword said with a bright smile as his form faded from existence.

XXX XXX XXX

Outside of his mindscape Naruto underwent a rather dramatic change as his orange jumpsuit was instantly replaced by a set of clothes consisting of a black kimono and hakama with a pair of simple straw sandals protecting his feet.

At his wait was a katana perfectly proportioned to his height and arm length, with an elegant orange sheath, with a blue painting of a tree filled with stylized leaves wrapping around the wood. The handle of the blade was no different, possessing a bright orange hue with more blue leaves stitched into the course grip.

Despite the change in his clothes, the real change was the burst of power that erupted from his form, barely a tenth of his chakra capacity in life but far more potent from what he could tell.

Opening his eyes he was greeted by a sight that made his non-existent blood run cold, Tsunade had been impaled by the treacherous snake sannin. However he was snapped out of his stupor upon witnessing the older blonde grip her old teammates sword before pulling it forward, bringing the pale skinned man rocketing towards her where a single elbow impacted with his head.

The sickening crunch that came from the impact was evidence that the snake summoner took a powerful hit, even if he had spat out the snake and leaned backwards to minimise the blow. It was because of that that the sick traitor was able to stand up after receiving the normally lethal strike.

Despite this the blond still couldn't stop himself from feeling fear about the older blonde's injury, that is until he noticed strange markings covering her body and all her injuries closing in a matter of seconds, evidence of her immense talent in the art of Iryō jutsu.

"Whoa," was the only word to escape his mouth upon seeing the legendary medic heal right before his eyes and wondering if she really was good enough to resurrect him… that was when a certain thought struck him.

"_Wait… even if she could revive me… is it possible if I'm not in my body?"_ that thought immediately made him blink before he decided to see if his body would reaccept his soul.

Calmly laying down upon his body, he was relieved to feel the soft warmth of his chakra return and without any hesitation he opened his eyes and sat up, shocking the two sannin that were facing his direction.

Immediately the spiky haired youth felt for his new sword, quickly looking around upon realising that it wasn't there.

"_W-what?! Soul Sword, where are you?" _the whiskered boy asked in his mind as he tried to find out where the blade had vanished to.

"_I'm right here Shukun,"_ came the silent response to the blonds question.

"_I meant why isn't your sword form here?" _silence reigned in the blonds mind as he blatantly ignored everything the others in the clearing were saying.

"_I don't know…"_ she eventually admitted with a moan of disappointment, _"I… I wanted to be of use to Shukun but I'm useless, useless!"_

"_Uh… well I don't have a clue what's going on either so I can't really call you useless,"_ the blue eyed genin thought before he was snapped out of his mental conversation by a shout.

"DAMMIT NARUTO MOVE!" looking up upon hearing Jiraiya's yell, the whiskered child's eyes widened upon seeing the a tree flying at him courtesy of the battle of the summons.

With a loud yelp of surprise he practically threw himself out of the way of the oncoming wood, landing in an undignified heap as the tree crashed not far from him.

"Dammit…" was the only word that escaped his lips before he found himself getting dragged back to his feet and away from the conflict, making him look up to see a young woman with short black hair, a black kimono and a pig in her arms.

"Wha? Shizune, what are you doing?" the spiky haired youth quickly asked upon seeing the woman dragging him away from the battle of titanic proportions.

"Getting us out of here, staying is a death wish when the legendary three are fighting," the young woman stated seriously without even bothering to turn around.

Upon hearing that, the genin couldn't stop himself from feeling frustrated. Why was he always so weak? Why was it that he was so out of his league here when he had managed to defeat Gaara? But then it struck him, he didn't really defeat Gaara, the Kyūbi was completely necessary in that win, Neji was the same, and Haku… every time he managed to win a fight against a decent foe, he had always needed the Kyūbi's chakra to save him.

He was weak.

"_Shukun! Stop thinking like that! You have something much more special than just being able to fight!"_ the voice of the unnamed sword said within his mind, making his eyes widen in surprise.

"_And what do I have that's so special?"_ he asked as he began to fall back into depression.

"_You have the power to change people,"_ immediately Naruto stumbled physically, though he was certain Shizune assumed it was either due to fatigue of because she was pulling him too fast.

Honestly he had never once thought about that talent he seemed to possess, he was much more interested in fighting and making a name for himself as a powerful shinobi yet here he was being told that the power to change people was greater than the ability to fight… the worst part was that it was a part of himself that was saying such a thing.

So did that mean that he always knew deep down that he possessed this ability? Was that why he always liked talking to anyone that would listen?

"_Does it matter? All that happened in the past, you need to focus on the present and the future,"_ once again the blond was greeted by the spirit swords words and once again he began to feel better about himself.

"_Yeah, I can't keep being so pathetic if I want to become the Hokage!" _as he thought that he could've sworn he could feel the female version of himself smiling at him at his declaration.

"_That's right and I promise, I'll always be there for you, no matter what happens,"_ Naruto couldn't stop himself from smiling at that, sure he knew it was just another piece of him that was making that statement but it didn't change the fact that it made him feel better knowing that… whoever she was would be there for him.

Though he was still confused about the apparent lack of her manifestation outside of his mindscape, surely he should at the very least be capable of seeing her.

Hearing the crashes of the gargantuan battle getting further away, he decided to see if he could at the very least feel his new power, closing his eyes and searching for the currently unfamiliar feeling that flowed through his body in a manner similar but different to his chakra.

If he was to describe the two powers, he would describe his chakra as a lake located in his stomach that flowed throughout his body via a series of rivers, however this new power felt as if his entire body was the lake. So while his chakra was mostly concentrated at his abdomen, his new power simply flowed anywhere it wanted throughout his body, never condensing at any single point.

With calm breathing he tried to focus on drawing on this strange energy as he ran, quickly discovering something rather interesting, his new energy was actually significantly easier to draw on than chakra, however regulating it seemed more difficult.

Not only that, it would appear that Shizune was completely oblivious to his new power if her complete lack of reaction was anything to go by. So it was with a small grin forming on his face that he tried to push his strange power out of his body and into the form of the blade she had initially taken.

The results were _not _what he was expecting as he accidentally pushed a bit of chakra out with the new energy, drawing his 'chaperones' attention only for her to gape at the sight she laid her eyes on.

There, in his hand, the very same blade he managed to obtain while in his spirit form formed from the combination of energies, something the dark haired woman had never seen before.

Sure she had seen swords of chakra before, however they were always distinguishable from regular weapons, often possessing a wavy outline or at the very least, the colour of chakra, however this weapon created from the blonds chakra was _orange_ of all colours.

"Naruto-kun, what did you just do?" she asked him with shock still present in her eyes as she slowed down and proceeded to reach out for the katana.

"_NO!"_ with that yell reverberating through Naruto's head he couldn't stop himself from jerking the nameless spirit sword away from the young Iryō-nin, _"I don't want anyone except you touching me."_

"S-sorry Shizune, I don't want anyone touching my sword," Naruto said out loud, he didn't know why the spirit was being so averse to being touched but he did know one thing, he didn't want to hurt its feelings.

Shizune for her part didn't make any negative reaction to his apparent possessiveness of his new weapon, honestly she couldn't blame him for such a thing, it was a non-existent ability as far as she was aware so he was entitled to feel protective of it.

"It's alright, you're entitled to your secrets," the dark eyed woman said in a placating tone, instantly putting the blond back off guard around her, "anyway, it sounds like the fight's over, I hope Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama killed that snake."

Instantly the blond turned to face the direction they had come from, seeing that all three summons had vanished from the area, on top of that there was the matter of him no longer being able of hearing the crashes that indicated one of Tsunade's attacks.

"Anyway, do you want to wait here for them?" the kind young woman asked him, earning a nod of acceptance from the blond that she honestly couldn't believe had been knocking on deaths door less than half an hour ago.

"I wonder…" the whiskered child muttered before unsheathing his sword for the first time, instantly going starry eyed at the blade that came from the sheath, the sheer perfection in its crafting and above everything else, the slight orange tint that it gave off.

Fully unsheathing the blade Naruto couldn't stop himself from staring at the blade in awe before a grin erupted onto his face and he decided to see just how sharp the edge was.

With a single swing, his question was answers as it sliced through the trunk of a tree like it wasn't even there, proving to the boy that his new katana was truly deadly if the lack of resistance was anything to go by.

"_You… are… AWESOME!" _was the only thought that passed through the blonds mind as he stared at the perfectly sliced tree before him.

"_YATTA! I can be useful to Shukun!"_ was the enthusiastic response he received from the spirit of the blade he currently possessed.

However while the two blonds were mentally celebrating, Shizune could only stare at the tree dumbfounded, not only was this sword formed in a manner completely different to anything she'd ever seen before but it was also incredibly sharp if the sheer lack of resistance offered by the tree was anything to go by.

Honestly the only time she'd seen a tree sliced with such little effort and by such a clean cut had been one of the few times she'd seen a wind master, however this cut was definitely made by a sword, her eyes had confirmed that for her.

Which meant that Naruto's sword was as sharp as blades of wind… something she had never heard of before, wind was well known as _the_ best at cutting so for the blond to actually have something to match its cutting power was truly amazing as far as the ninja world was concerned.

It was when the blond grinned like a madman that she started to truly worry about what he was going to do as he moved over towards a large rock and with a single hand, performed exactly the same action he had with the tree, being greeted by exactly the same results as before.

However they were both brought out of their respective thought processes by a pair of familiar voices.

"Where the hell did you get that sword?!" immediately the younger duo turned to face a pair of surprised sannin starting at the blade in the blonds hand and the cleanly cut boulder in front of him.

"Hey ero-sennin," instantly the whiskered child knew the white haired man was being completely serious when instead of getting indignant at the nickname the blond had given him he simply continued to stare at him.

"Jiraiya-sama, I don't know how he did so but Naruto-kun somehow managed to create that sword from his chakra," Shizune informed the man making him face her with surprise written on his face at her wording, "can I ask what happened to Orochimaru?"

"He got away," Tsunade responded before the white haired pervert could say anything before quickly turning her gaze back towards the blade that the other blond now wielded.

It was actually rather surprising, to see this young boy accused of having no talent as a ninja perform two feats that should've been impossible for any normal person, first successfully using the rasengan and then creating a solid weapon out of chakra… sure it was possible the blade would disperse upon being stuck by another blade but its cutting power was very impressive from what she could see of the rock he had tried it against.

"Dammit, that sucks!" Naruto's statement immediately while crossing his arms and pouting, he truly did want that creepy snake man to die for what he did to the Hokage.

"Anyway, shouldn't we get back to the town? We can continue the conversation there right?" Shizune proceeded to say, sure she didn't have anything against staying there but they could at least get a comfortable seat if they went back to the inn.

"Yeah, you're right," the old man said with a smile before seeing his student look at Tsunade with a victorious smirk.

"But before that…" he put his hand out in front of himself with his palm facing up, "my necklace."

"Stupid brat," the older of the two blondes said with a small smile as she removed the jade necklace that hung from her neck, ignoring the outstretched hand and placing it over the spiky haired youths head, allowing it to slip onto his neck, "you win."

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto had to admit, the rest of the day was far more disturbing than he had hoped. It wasn't because of Jiraiya trying to get him to give his new sword to him for examination (apparently he didn't trust the blade), it was more to do with the odd person with a broken chain attached to their chest that he saw.

Then there was that strange person dressed like he was when he unlocked his new power, jumping around and hitting the broken chained people with the butt of his sword, creating a glowing light before the broken chained person vanished with a small glowing blue orb floating upwards from where they once were.

However what truly terrified him was when this strange person that no one else seemed capable of seeing did that to a shinobi with a broken chain… instead of vanishing like the others, a giant gate decorated by a pair of giant skeletons shot out of the ground and opened to reveal a scene that made the blond pale in fear, that is before a large sword shot out and impaled the shinobi while emitting a cold and cruel laugh, only to pull the deceased man inside where the gates closed and crumbled to dust.

The worst part was that his new sword seemed to understand what was going on, though only in the most basic of manners 'he's sending them to the afterlife', that was all she told him, when he asked how she knew that her response was rather clear 'it is part of my power to do the same thing'.

That had honestly shocked him, to think that he possessed the power to guide souls to the afterlife was definitely not something he had ever anticipated, especially given how little he had thought of death until now.

It was something he had always known of and accepted however he had never once thought about what dying actually meant until he had experienced it first-hand. He silently wondered if Sasuke had experienced a similar thing when he had been placed in that false death state by Haku… he silently decided to ask his teammate about it after he recovered from whatever Itachi did to him.

Though that situation with the broken chained shinobi worried him, why did he vanish differently to the others? What was that large gate? Was it hell and if so, did all shinobi go there? That was the real question as far as Naruto was concerned, were ninja automatically damned in the afterlife?

Shaking his head clear of those thoughts he simply decided that he needed to get some sleep after dealing with the broken chained woman that haunted the room.

XXX XXX XXX

(1) Shukun = Lord/Master


	2. Chapter 2

"YATTA! I'M HOME!" a certain orange clad blond shouted as the group reached the village of Konoha, making the other three with him sweatdrop at his enthusiasm.

"Calm down brat, we've got important stuff to do before anything else," Jiraiya informed the whiskered child calmly before glancing at the blade at the blonds side, "be careful with that sword while we're away alright."

"Screw you ero-sennin, my sword is my partner and you aren't going to make me change my mind," the blue eyed genin stated firmly earning an exasperated sigh off the older ninja.

"Look brat, you won't let me analyse that damn blade so I can't say if it's safe or not," the white haired old man tried to reason, earning another glare off the blond.

"And I keep telling you _it is_," the near snarl that the orange clad boy made upon making his statement was not something that normally adorned his face, however it had quickly become rather common since the old pervert kept trying to get him to give up his new ally.

"Listen Naruto, you don't know as much as I do so I don't trust your judgement yet," the toad summoner stated seriously, earning yet another glare off the blond before he turned around and said a simple statement.

"Fuck you ero-sennin."

Silence reigned amongst the remainder of the group as they watched the blond walk away from them.

"Well Jiraiya, it looks like your own stubbornness has made your new student hate you," the busty woman stated with a smirk when Naruto had gotten out of earshot.

"Come on Tsunade-hime, you know as well as I do that you can't trust stuff like this without knowing the full picture and I'm certain that gaki isn't telling us everything, haven't you noticed the way he keeps looking around now?"

The other two in the group knew the white haired pervert was right, ever since he had gotten that sword Naruto had been focusing on area's with nothing in them, one time he even gained a look of absolute terror when there was absolutely nothing there.

So it was clear to them that there was definitely something wrong with him, however Tsunade was unconvinced that it was the sword that was causing the problem. During the war she had managed to revive a few people that died without too much damage caused to their body and one of them started displaying the same problems Naruto had started to display.

It was for this reason she believed he was suffering from a form of PTSD, however Jiraiya was convinced the sword was the problem. She could see where he was coming from, a blade like that being created from regular chakra was unheard of, meaning the chances were it was formed from the Kyūbi's chakra which could potentially weaken the seal and render Naruto's mind easy prey for the beast.

A theory that was further supported by the blonds refusal to allow the old shinobi access to it. The sheer protectiveness the blond displayed about his sword was quite possibly unhealthy, with him even going so far as to sleep with it, preventing the older ninja from studying it while he slept.

However she was far more convinced that it was PTSD, Shizune had stated that the chakra that created the blade was definitely Naruto's and unlike Jiraiya, she trusted her students judgement.

But the old pervert wouldn't be deterred.

"(sigh) Come on, let's get the meeting with the old farts over with," she eventually said before walking past the man with purpose, she may not have initially wanted to become Hokage but she at least wanted to get the meeting with the elders over sooner rather than later.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto couldn't stop himself from letting out a sigh of disappointment upon returning to his apartment. He had returned with the old man and Tsunade and his opinions of the duo had changed drastically since his temporary death.

Tsunade, the woman that he had once hated with a passion for her mocking of the Hokages had quickly become almost like a mother figure to him, though he chose to call her baa-chan due to her age. Then Jiraiya, a man he actually thought was pretty cool once you got past his apparent stupidity had quickly grown to be someone he hated, simply because he wouldn't leave the matter about his sword alone.

Honestly why couldn't the legendary shinobi just accept his judgement? That was the part that really pissed him off, that despite knowing about the blonds unconditional loyalty to Konoha he still refused to trust him on matters related to himself.

So it was with a tired sigh that the young boy proceeded to let a small smile adorn his face as he thought of something that always cheered him up, ramen.

He would've gone out to Ichiraku's however that annoying old man had pretty much stolen all his money and blew it all on women and drinks (that was yet another reason he had grown to hate the old bastard), so instead he simply settled with preparing some of the instant ramen he had stored away in his cupboards.

Then again, instant ramen annoyed him as well, they called it instant but it was anything but instant, taking a minute or two to boil the water and then another three for the noodles to actually be ready to eat. However it was all he had right now so he'd make do with it and just enjoy the noodles when he could.

So it was with barely contained glee that he awaited his favourite meal, all the while biding his time talking with his newest friend/sword.

XXX XXX XXX

Elsewhere in Konoha a young woman with long black hair, calculating but bored eyes and flawless features watched the meeting of the elders from within the very chamber they were talking.

She was wearing a set of clothes consisting of black hakama, a matching waist length kimono and a pair of okobo protecting her feet. At her waist was a wakizashi and a clipboard with several sheets of paper was being held in front of her while she took down several notes concerning the conversation she was overhearing.

While she took the notes, nothing seemed particularly important from her observations, well except for the whole fact that this medic was being appointed the position of Hokage. The chances were that this decision would probably result in Konoha restarting the Iryō nin program and therefore help minimise casualties amongst its ranks, which would in turn result in less work for her kind.

"I see, is that the end of your report Jiraiya?" Mitokado Homura, an old man with spiky grey hair, a thick beard that framed his jawline and a pair of glasses resting on the bridge of his nose asked the younger man.

"No, during our encounter with Orochimaru, Uzumaki Naruto died," instantly the shock on the faces of the two elders gave away just how serious a situation that was, "however Tsunade managed to revive him quickly enough."

The unseen observer quickly noted the annoyance that appeared on the faces of the two oldest (outside of her that is) at the apparently unnecessary information.

"If he is still alive then there is nothing to worry about," the other elder, an old woman with grey hair tied into a bun said seriously, earning a sigh off the spymaster.

"Actually, after he was revived, he… changed," the toad sennin's words caught the interest of the three oldest in the room, though none more than the observer, "somehow he managed to form a solid sword from chakra and beyond that, he's started looking at things when there's nothing there."

"I told you Jiraiya, he's just suffering from PTSD," the blonde sannin stated firmly, earning an exasperated sigh off the man.

"What makes you so sure? He's being far too protective of that sword of his don't you think?" the old man started to argue, however the observer was currently deep in thought.

"_A sword formed from chakra that he is protective of? He temporarily died and has started looking at nothing as if something is there? Is it possible?" _her thoughts were racing at a million miles a minute as she thought over the first situation in over fifty years that had actually incited her curiosity.

It didn't take long for the meeting to be adjourned with the decision that Tsunade would be declared Hokage before the entire village within three days.

However that didn't matter to the spirit form woman, she had seen all the Hokages take the mantle after all, seeing another was nothing special to her.

However the knowledge of Uzumaki Naruto's new situation was something that she really wanted to confirm, had the young boy really become a shinigami after mere minutes of dying? That was a mystery that she needed to solve, or her name wasn't Shutara Senjumaru.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto couldn't stop himself from feeling nervous as he walked through the streets of Konoha and towards the Hokage tower, sure he knew that he had just been summoned for the purpose of getting paid for the mission he had just completed, which meant he would be able to have some Ichiraku's later on, however that wasn't what worried him.

No, what worried him was the figure that was following him. He once again recognised the strangers clothing as being the same as his own spirit forms, which meant that this person was one of those people that guided others to the afterlife… so why was she following him?

It scared him to think that this apparently invisible woman could potentially be attempting to return him to the world of the dead, then again why would she be attempting that when the other black clad sword wielder simply ignored him? Or did this particular one have a special interest in him?

"_No, bad Naruto, you've been hanging around ero-sennin too much," _the whiskered blond immediately told himself.

"_But it may be true, you are an amazing person after all Shukun," _came the calming voice of his partner in his mind, earning a small smile off the blue eyed genin in the process.

"_Maybe but I've got to prepare for the worst,"_ the young sword could do little more than agree with his statement, he had been raised as a ninja after all and they were taught to prepare for the worst.

Time passed rather slowly for the blond as he kept his mind on his stalker, not that they were trying to hide their presence, especially if the small smile that adorned her face whenever he faced her was anything to talk about, hell it was almost as if she was happy that he knew she was there.

He tried his hardest to ignore her presence as he reached the Hokage's tower and received his payment for the mission, which made his smile grow infectious upon seeing that it was officially recorded as him completing an A-rank mission, receiving the appropriate payment in the process (which he had to admit was a surprisingly large figure).

However as soon as he left the tower he decided it was about time to confront his new tail. He knew that he wouldn't be able to confront them amongst others, they would probably believe him to be insane if he started talking to thin air after all. To make matters even worse, even if it turned out that this person was violent, there was no one he knew of in Konoha that could help him, meaning he would simply have to hope that they were weaker than him (something he believed was probably unlikely).

However there was one thing Uzumaki Naruto was not and that was a coward, so it was with a steeled resolve that he proceeded to walk out of the village and towards the training fields, at least there he wouldn't have to worry about enclosed spaces or collateral damage.

It didn't take long for him to start his walk towards a vacant training ground, once again looking behind him and once again seeing the strange dark haired woman following him, this time with a small chuckle escaping her lips while she wrote on a clipboard she had pulled out of nowhere.

Now that action alone made the blond shiver in slight fear, why was this woman laughing while writing on a clipboard? Then again the first question would have to be, who the hell was she in the first place?

Upon finally reaching a vacant training ground he turned to face the strange woman only to be beaten to the punch as she opened her mouth and started talking in a surprisingly formal yet simultaneously excited manner.

"Uzumaki Naruto, I am Shutara Senjumaru, would you be so kind as to answer a few questions?" instantly the blond was caught off guard by her apparent openness at this moment in time and in the end all he could manage was a blank nod of acceptance, "good, now is it true that you temporarily died on your last mission?"

"W-what does that matter to you?!" the whiskered child asked defensively, earning a small smile off the strange woman.

"So you did, oh and please, don't try to hide anything or lie, all that will do is make me make possibly incorrect observations which would create more chance for error in my current line of research," the strange woman said calmly as she finished taking her newest note.

"Eh?" was all that could escape the genin's lips at the woman's statement, earning a small chuckle off her.

"Basically, you could ruin my fun," the woman calling herself Senjumaru explained in much simpler terms for the now dumbstruck teen, "next question, during your temporary death state did you successfully commune with your Zanpakutō?"

"Huh? What's a sand pack tow?" the spiky haired youth asked the strange woman who promptly proceeded to slap her head in a manner that indicated she had forgotten something obvious.

"My apologies, Zanpakutō is the term given to the sword of a person's soul," the young looking woman explained, earning another shocked expression off the blond as he tried to process this strangers words.

To think that his newest teammate was known as a Zanpakutō, the mere idea was actually rather strange in his mind, then again he wasn't exactly used to the goings on of the afterlife yet so that was to be expected. However this strange woman seemed to be explaining more to him than he was answering her questions, quite possibly because knowledge of what she was asking about was necessary but then again, it could've just been that she liked explaining things like Sakura or Iruka.

"Y-yes," he managed to stutter out after remembering what the woman had told him before about trying to hide things or lie.

"Then I assume you pulled on your Reiryoku? I mean, the power associated with your Zanpakutō," Senjumaru asked him after she finished writing on her clipboard.

"Y-yeah," once again the blond really didn't know what to do, on one hand he really shouldn't be giving out information like this so willingly however this strange woman was probably his best bet at actually getting some answers about the events surrounding his temporary death.

"Can you please give me a demonstration?" the thoroughly confused blond quickly let a bit of his new power leak out of his body, earning a happy smile off the note taking woman, "good, good, now can you please explain to me the circumstance surrounding your temporary death?"

"W-why the hell do you want to know that?" the now properly scared boy asked defensively earning a playful smile off Senjumaru.

"It's simple really, learning to commune with your Zanpakutō and draw on your Reiryoku normally takes years' worth of training and yet, you managed to do both quick enough for you to be revived, I want to know the circumstance surrounding your death to see if it's possible to replicate the effects," most of the explanation went right over the academically challenged blonds head however he understood enough to get the basic gist of it, he was awesome and she wanted to see if it was possible to make others as awesome as him.

It didn't take long for the blond to decide that telling the woman probably wouldn't hurt anyone, the simple fact that she was literally invisible to the rest of the populace was proof that they wouldn't be capable of defending against her even if she decided to attack one day.

So it was with a strained face that he told her of the battle of the sannin, of his successful use of the Rasengan and his temporary death, of his desperation to protect Tsunade and his meeting with his Zanpakutō.

"Please wait a few minutes, did you say 'her'?" the dark haired questioner asked him with surprise clear on her face.

"Y-yeah, is that a problem?!" once again the blond got defensive only for the clipboard wielder to write more on the object.

"No, it is just unusual, out of all the shinigami I've met they've always had Zanpakutō that were either the same gender as themselves or completely genderless," she explained, earning several blinks off the significantly younger blond.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN SHINIGAMI!" the sudden increase in volume caused many animals to scatter from their perches in the woods while Senjumaru simply stared at him before slapping her head again.

"I forgot to mention that those who manifest their Zanpakutō are referred to as Shinigami didn't I?" she asked rhetorically, earning a curt nod off the young boy, "sorry?"

The look on her face almost made him laugh as it reminded him of himself when he had pulled a prank that went a little too far, he had been genuinely sorry but at the same time acknowledged that they probably wouldn't believe him.

"For that, I want you to answer some of my questions," Naruto decided to try and bring the situation into his favour only to be surprised when the (apparently) young woman gave him a firm nod of acceptance.

"That is appropriate given that I came here to ask you questions," she acknowledged, "so what is your first question?"

"What do you know about me?" Naruto knew that it was a long shot but given this woman's ability to spy on people without them even knowing she was ever there meant she may have at least discovered who his parents were.

"You are Uzumaki Naruto, the only child of Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato, the godson of Jiraiya," she would've continued if it wasn't for the blond interrupting her.

"W-wait a minute, did you just say I'm the son of the Yondaime and that that stupid old pervert is my godfather?!" the whiskered blond asked in complete shock at the information he received.

"That is correct," instantly the young boys world had been turned upside down, not only had he found out who his parents were but also that one of them was actually _a freaking Hokage!_ "back onto my knowledge of you, you are the jinchūriki of the Kyūbi no kitsune and feared by the general populace of this village for that very reason. You possess an overabundance of chakra that you were never taught finer control of until it was too late, preventing you from performing any delicate jutsu with it, you also possessed a desire for attention which interfered with your tutelage and resulted in you taking on the mantle of your years 'dobe'. You have completed seven D-rank missions, one B-rank and two A-ranks… that is all the information I have on you outside of your love for ramen."

Naruto had to admit, even with the knowledge that this stranger had given him, her objective analysis of his life was rather harsh as far as he could tell but then again, he supposed she wasn't simply saying 'you suck' and was actually giving what she believed to be the reasons for his lack of skill.

"Do you have any more questions?" the dark eyed woman asked him calmly, earning a thoughtful expression off the significantly younger of the duo.

"Oh yeah, I saw one of you people sending a ninja to the afterlife once… does that big door always appear for a shinobi?" his heart started to beat rapidly as he ask his question, partially fearing the answer he would receive.

"More often than not, though it does depend primarily on what they did in life," the clipboard carrying shinigami stated bluntly, "if they ever killed anyone then they would automatically be sent to hell."

Instantly the blond stared in shock, so simply killing someone was enough to send a person to hell, that wasn't something that anyone ever mentioned, sure they didn't know about it but couldn't someone of at least come up with the possibility that killing was a one way ticket to hell?

"Honestly the only thing that shinigami is allowed to kill are hollows," she informed him calmly, snapping him out of his stupor once again.

"Huh? What's a hollow?" the sheer confusion present on the young shinobi's face made the woman laugh nervously at the fact she had forgotten to really explain anything to this child.

"An evil spirit that devours pluses, the term we give to a soul that hasn't become a shinigami or hollow," the dark haired woman stated, earning a blank stare off the blond.

"Did you just say that normal souls can turn into hollows?" he asked her blankly, honestly he had grown tired of the constant surprises and was beginning to find it difficult to muster any sort of emotion anymore.

"That is correct," Naruto certainly had to admit that this woman was rather... unusual from what he had seen of her so far, then again he hadn't actually met any shinigami until she had confronted him today, "is that all you wish to ask?"

"N-no, not right now anyway," the young blond proceeded to respond as calmly as he could.

"Well, then, may I continue to ask you a few more questions?" earning a blank nod in response, the strange shinigami opened her mouth once more, "so during your meeting with your Zanpakutō, did you hear its name?"

"No," he answered, honestly he was really annoyed that he couldn't hear her name, it meant that he couldn't call her by it and instead had to refer to her as soul sword or something similar.

"Well that's the first thing about you that bears some semblance of normality," the dark haired woman stated bluntly, making the spiky haired youth blink in surprise.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked with a hint of confusion in his tone.

"Oh, it's just that it's exceedingly rare for someone to learn the name of their Zanpakutō right off the bat, you normally have to be a competent shinigami before you can synchronize with your Zanpakutō to that extent," Senjumaru informed him calmly, making the young boy nod dumbly as he tried to understand exactly what she meant even if he did manage to get the basic gist of what she was saying, "now, how often do you speak with your Zanpakutō?"

"Huh? Why do you want to know that?" the whiskered blond asked her as he tried to understand what she was after.

"I just want to know how freely you can commune with your sword right now," the shinigami stated calmly, making the blond blink in slight surprise.

"Uh, why wouldn't I be able to talk to her freely?" once again he was greeted by the sight of the young looking woman's eyes widen in surprise before she jotted more notes down on her clipboard.

"Interesting, unable to hear his Zanpakutō's name while being capable of freely communicating with it… you really are an unusual shinigami Uzumaki Naruto," she muttered, barely loud enough for the blond to hear her before she put her clipboard away and looked him in the eyes, "okay then Uzumaki Naruto, thank you for being so cooperative, I'll leave you to carry on with your day for now."

"Huh? W-wait! What are you going to do now?" the blue eyed genin asked her as he tried to understand exactly what this person was thinking.

"I'm simply going to summarize the information I have collected from you before handing it over to Yamamoto-sama," she stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Huh? Who's Yamamoto?" the blond asked, earning a soft look from the dark haired shinigami.

"A true demon of the blade, a merciless monster that will do anything to destroy hollows, the first and strongest shinigami," she stated seriously, "he is not someone you would get along with."

With that said, the strange woman simply turned away from him before calmly walking away, leaving the mentally exhausted boy alone in the training ground.

"_Shukun?"_ came a comforting voice from the back of his mind, earning a soft smile off the tired blond.

"_Yeah?"_ he responded tiredly, only to feel the concern his sword possessed flow into him.

"_Are you alright?"_ she asked him nervously as she too tried to take in all the information that they had learned from that Senjumaru woman.

"_I don't know… I don't know."_


	3. Chapter 3

Ichiraku Teuchi and his daughter Ayame were concerned, really concerned. Uzumaki Naruto had been in their establishment for fifteen minutes and he was currently on his second bowl of ramen. If it was anyone else there wouldn't be any cause for concern however they knew Naruto and normally he would've been on his fifth to seventh bowl by now.

So right now they knew that either there was something seriously wrong with their favourite blond, or this was an imposter. They had tried to talk to him and he showed signs that he was in fact the genuine article, such as his inherent disrespect for authority figures, actually acknowledging that he was eating slower than normal without there being any mention of it and also, the fact that he talked the same as he used to, only far more subdued.

He had told them that he just had a lot on his mind and they accepted that that could easily be the case, he had gone on a high ranked mission immediately after the Sandaime's funeral so it was possible that the blond was just now getting the chance to mourn his grandfather figure.

What they were unaware of however was that while the blond was thinking of the deceased leader, he was thinking thoughts that could best be described as feelings of betrayal. Why had the old man hidden his father's identity from him? Hell the previous Hokage hadn't even told him about the Kyūbi, it had ended up being a _traitor_ of all things that taught him why he was hated by the village.

Senjumaru however seemed to be perfectly open with him, happily answering his questions in exchange for him answering hers, it was her he had learned his parents identities from, not the Hokage like he should've. Why was it that he seemed to be learning more about himself off people that _weren't _loyal to the village than he did from those who were?

He honestly hated that fact. Why was it that he currently felt like he couldn't trust his own home while he could trust a complete stranger like Senjumaru? He had already had a look at the library and found out about Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina, he couldn't deny it when he saw the photos of them, he practically had his mother's face and his father's hair. On top of that he even had Kushina's clan name.

He wanted to be able to deny what the shinigami had told him but the reality was that the more he looked into what he had learned, the harder it was to deny the fact that he really was the son of the Yondaime.

Which meant that Jiraiya probably really was his godfather. That information stung more than anything else, he had discovered that both his parents died during the Kyūbi's attack on Konoha thirteen years ago, however Jiraiya _should've_ been there for him when he was growing up, he shouldn't have been alone like he was all those years… it was those thoughts that left him with a single feeling concerning his godfather, betrayal.

His own godfather had betrayed him. The stinging sensation that came from knowing he wasn't wanted had returned from that titbit of knowledge, the stinging that had disappeared when he had joined team seven, when he finally started to develop true bonds that distracted him from the loneliness, it had returned and it was all because of that stupid old pervert.

That was why he found it so hard to eat right now, the whole situation concerned shinigami, pluses and hollows didn't matter in his eyes, all that he truly cared about was that his only true family had abandoned him and then simply decided to walk right back into his life without so much as an apology for not being there for him when he was younger.

It honestly made him furious that the old bastard thought he could just jump in like nothing was wrong. Naruto knew one thing though… if he ever saw the white haired sennin again, there would be blood.

He also knew that the only reason his Zanpakutō wasn't speaking right now was because she was also trying to come to terms with everything that they had learnt from Senjumaru and his short trip to the library to research his apparent family, under normal circumstances he wouldn't be caught dead in that place but finding out possible information on your heritage that you had been trying to discover for several years wasn't a normal circumstance and even Naruto would risk the trek into the Konoha library.

He wanted to deny the dark haired woman's information, if he did so he would've been able to say that Jiraiya wasn't his godfather and that he was just a stranger that he had managed to convince to train him, however he had failed in his quest, if anything it only reinforced what the shinigami had told him.

Looking down at his food he couldn't stop himself from sighing in distaste, not of the food but rather his inability to give it his full attention. Ramen had been his one true comfort during his isolation in the village of Konoha, it never betrayed him, it simply made his taste buds happy and his stomach full and now he couldn't even bring himself to finish his second bowl.

So it was with a hint of regret that he simply pulled out his wallet and put the money for his food on the counter, shocking the duo that ran the stand with the display before he thanked them for the food and left, his very first half eaten bowl left on the counter acting as a testament to his current mental state.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto had never understood why he always felt so comfortable when he sat on top of the fourth Hokage's head on the Hokage monument, that is until today. To think that all this time he had subconsciously been trying to get closer to the father he never had.

Sure he was annoyed that the man had sealed the Kyūbi inside him however that didn't change the fact that he understood that the man had to do it to save the village, he just didn't understand why it had to be him that his father sealed the fox into.

Still, that wasn't what mattered right now, what mattered right now was the fact that he was still furious about his supposed godfather, he knew that the man probably had a good reason to leave him alone all those years but after the past few weeks he didn't know if he even _wanted_ to forgive the man that had constantly been looking down on his Zanpakutō.

That had really pushed him into a foul mood concerning the white haired pervert which did not do the old ninja any good with the new facts the blond was presented with.

So here he was, sitting on his father's head, looking out over the village that he had grown up in, seeing it in a new light. After all, if two of the highest ranking shinobi were keeping him in the dark about such important matters concerning his life then what else were they hiding?

His eyes suddenly widened at that thought, unlike other shinobi he had someone he could ask for_ sensitive_ information, surely Senjumaru would be prepared to tell him more about the dark secrets of Konoha, for too long had he been blinded by the light and she had given him his first glimpse into the dark corners that the higher ups kept hidden from the public eye.

Who knew what he'd find out once he met her again, given what he was currently feeling he wouldn't be surprised if he found out that most of what they taught at the academy was lies… it almost felt like that was the case already and he had only learnt two secrets.

So it was with half lidded eyes that lacked his normal warmth that the blond watched the sunset on the horizon in silence, simply trying to let his mind relax, though given his current grievances that was proving harder than he had anticipated.

"Hey Gaki, Tsunade's healed your teammate," came a familiar voice that he chose to ignore in favour of trying to control his urge to bifurcate the legendary ninja, "hello? Is anyone home?"

The white haired pervert found himself incredibly shocked when he was forced to jump back to avoid the sword strike that would've cleaved him in two with minimal effort given the sheer cutting ability of the blade used.

"Look here _Jiraiya_ I want you to understand one thing, I want you out of my life," the sheer venom the gama sennin could hear in his newest students tone told him that there was definitely something wrong, combine that with the fact the blond actually called him by his name and he had to do a double take to make sure the blond wasn't an imposter under a henge or trapped in a powerful genjutsu.

"So what? Are you saying you don't want my training now?" the legendary shinobi asked cockily, believing that the blond would change his tune after remembering that he was being taken as the apprentice of one of the sannin.

"That's right, now piss off and never try to speak to me again," Naruto demanded through gritted teeth as he continued to hold his sword in his right hand, ready to take the legendary shinobi's hand off if he tried to do anything.

Suddenly the carefree expression the older ninja usually had morphed into the serious business face he had worn when he had faced off against Orochimaru, though honestly the blond didn't care, he just wanted the man to leave him alone.

"Look, do you remember when Itachi and Kisame tried to kidnap you before?" the seriousness in the man's tone did nothing to change the blonds mood as he continued to glare at his supposed godfather, "there are roughly eight others that have the exact same goal as those two and every one of them is strong enough to make Kakashi look like an average Chūnin, if you don't get the proper training from someone on their level then you'll never be able to defend yourself from them."

"And you want to pretend you'll give me the _proper training_ you're talking about? Quit trying to screw me around!" the whiskered child shouted angrily as he recalled all the so called 'training' the man had given him, constantly abandoning him to go and sate his desires for booze and women instead of focusing on making sure he was safe. Honestly if Itachi and Kisame had returned while he was practicing the rasengan he'd have been completely defenceless against the duo and the sannin would've been so far away he wouldn't have even known they were there until it was too late.

Jiraiya however couldn't believe his ears, to think that his godson was being so unreasonable all of a sudden. It was something that was going to be a serious problem because if he couldn't get the blond to train under him, he had no doubt the boy wouldn't stand a chance against the Akatsuki. Honestly even with his training he was sure the boy would still need a full team including an elite Jōnin in order to simply hold his own against the monsters that existed within that organisation.

It was then that the old sannin made his biggest mistake. Vanishing in a burst of speed too great for the blond to follow, he twisted the blonds wrist and took the blonds sword from his grip.

"Are you willing to listen now?" the white haired man asked seriously, hoping that whatever influence the sword was having on the blond would vanish now that he had removed it from him.

It was then that he felt it.

Quickly removing his hand from the blonds wrist he could only stare in shock as his palm showed signs of starting to blister and the reason was obvious to everyone in Konoha, including those that couldn't normally sense chakra.

There, standing only a few feet away was an enraged blond covered in a blood red aura that was much more advanced than the last time he had witnessed it when the blond had summoned Gamabunta when falling down the chasm. This time he could clearly see two long ear like protrusions and a dangerously swaying tail of chakra in the cloak.

He could do nothing more than stand there as he watched the blond literally growl at him, his now scarlet slitted eyes trained on him like predator staring at its prey, though the old ninja wasn't too worried about the threat the blond posed. No he was worried about just how far gone the blond had become since he had gained that damn sword.

"Get… your… fucking… hands… off… HER!" the devastating roar that the blond released at the end of the sentence shocked the sannin with the sheer force it unleashed, nearly knocking him off balance.

Mere moments later he found a clawed fist heading straight for his head, though it was moving too fast for your average tokubetsu Jōnin to follow, he was on a completely different level and found avoiding the attack easy even with his balance askew and the chakra shroud moving independently of the blond in an attempt to inflict pain on him.

Honestly it did surprise him that the shroud was capable of attacking independently but he wasn't a Kage level ninja for nothing and so avoiding it hadn't been too difficult.

But despite everything he couldn't shake one thing from his mind, that the blond had called his sword 'her'. He knew as soon as the boy had made that statement that the sword was sentient and he was now convinced that it had manipulating the blond.

"Look Naruto, calm down! Don't lose to some sword!" the master shinobi shouted hoping that he would get through to the blond and he would finally see the idiocy of his trust in his sword.

However his eyes could only widen in shock when the look of absolute rage plastered on the blonds face contorted into an even angrier glare and another tail appeared on the foxes cloak.

Before anymore conflict could occur however a familiar blonde woman appeared above the murderous genin and with a single light tap (for her anyway) managed to knock the blond unconscious.

"Ah, Tsunade-hime, good timing," the old sage said jovially only to notice the glare she sent him.

"Jiraiya, give me that sword," the blond woman demanded earning a serious stare off her former teammate.

"Tsunade-hime I think I should," the toad summoner started only to be cut off by the medical ninja.

"Jiraiya!" the tone she snapped at him in made it clear she wasn't going to tolerate any arguments from the other ninja, who simply narrowed his eyes and handed the blade to the soon to be Hokage before finding himself receiving a punch in the gut, "what the hell did you think you were doing?!"

"D-dammit Tsunade, that hurt," the old man muttered as he clutched his gut, sure the punch hadn't been a _proper_ punch from her but it still hurt like all hell.

"I'm waiting," she stated seriously as she stood with the blonds sword still held in her hand, "so explain exactly _how_ you managed to make Naruto angry enough to call on _two_ _full tails_ of the Kyūbi's chakra?"

It was at this point that the old sennin knew he wasn't getting out of this without even more injuries but he had to at least explain why he had removed the sword from the blond.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto's head hurt. Why did it hurt? Oh yeah, he had been caught off guard by a strike from behind when he was trying to get his Zanpakutō back.

Suddenly he shot up on to notice that he was laying on a sofa in the Hokage's office with his sword resting at his side. It was with pure relief that he proceeded to pick up the blade, immediately feeling the warmth radiated by it upon touching the sheath before he looked at the rest of the room.

The one thing that instantly caught his attention was Tsunade's presence behind the desk that once housed the old man that he had learned kept him in the dark about so much.

"How are you feeling?" the blonde Kage asked the significantly younger blond upon noting that the boys eyes had landed upon her.

"Uh… my head hurts a little but apart from that… angry," Naruto chose to be honest with the old woman that had started acting like a mother towards him despite her lack of obligation to do so.

"Is it because of Jiraiya?" the completely unhesitant nod she got in response was proof that whatever the old man had done something the blond really couldn't forgive, "is it because of his refusal to trust you and that sword?"

Instead of answering he just looked down, sure that was a part of the reason but he didn't really know how to say what the true problem was.

"(sigh) look Naruto-kun, the stupid pervert may be going about it wrong but he's doing what he's doing because he's concerned about you," suddenly she found herself getting cut off by a rant that she had never expected.

"IF HE CARED SO MUCH THEN WHY DIDN'T HE DO ANYTHING SOONER?!" Tsunade couldn't stop herself from blinking in confusion at the blonds words.

"I'm sorry, what do you mean?" she asked hoping for confirmation only to stare in disbelief at what the boy said next.

"HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MY GODFATHER SO WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T I EVEN SEE HIM ONCE BEFORE I WAS THIRTEEN?!" now the boys actions suddenly made sense, his aggression towards her old teammate wasn't purely because of the sword but rather because of knowledge that the blond shouldn't have had access to yet.

"Naruto, may I ask where you learned that piece of information?" she asked him calmly, if Konoha had a security problem then she would have to find it and plug the leak… probably with her fist.

"The Shinigami," Naruto said it knowing that while Senjumaru wasn't _the_ shinigami, she was at the very least _a_ shinigami, which in turn meant that he wasn't actually lying.

And that scared Tsunade. The fact that the blond had spoken with the shinigami was not something she could honestly understand, that is until she remembered the report concerning the Kyūbi's sealing, that Minato had initially used the Shiki Fūjin before sealing the rest of the beast inside the boy.

While it seemed unlikely, it _was_ possible that the Kami had had a piece of itself sealed within the blond during the sealing of the Kyūbi, meaning that Naruto's change since his temporary death experience made even more sense than before to the legendary medic.

Then there was another matter that came to her attention concerning the circumstances.

"Naruto… is that sword the shinigami?" now Tsunade really was beginning to worry, was it possible that the hyperactive knucklehead ninja before her was in possession of a Kami in the form of a sword?

Naruto didn't take long to decide on his course of action, technically his Zanpakutō was a part of him and he was indeed a shinigami so why bother trying to explain it to anyone that was currently alive?

"Yes," he said seriously, successfully misdirecting the new Hokage about his new partner, "and she doesn't like others touching her."

Now that piece of information blew the Godaime for a loop, the shinigami didn't like being touched by others, then that was why he was so protective of it.

"_Dammit Jiraiya you complete idiot," _were the only thoughts to course through the old woman's mind as she continued to watch the young boy with a calm gaze.

"So why have to started to look at things strangely? Is that the Shinigami's fault as well?" the old woman asked him calmly, earning a nod of acknowledgement from the boy.

"Because of the shinigami in me, I can see ghosts now," the whiskered child stated, earning a nod of understanding from the aged leader as she continued to watch him for any sign of a lie, "I… I've even seen some pass on to the afterlife."

"Is it nice to watch?" the old lady asked, earning a strained expression from the blond.

"That depends… on whether it's a civilian or ninja," the blue eyed blond stated as he looked away from his new family figure.

"There's a difference?" the older ninja asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, with a civilian they tend to transform into little blue orbs and float up to heaven," at this the older woman let out a small smile as she thought of her loved ones going that way, "but when a shinobi passes on… the gates of hell open and drag them inside."

Suddenly the blonde woman's face changed from one of peace to one of dread, immediately she knew she had to ask the blond if he knew why.

"Why? Why does that happen?" the Godaime asked as calmly as she could, hoping against hope that the blond knew of something that made it possible for a ninja to go to the other afterlife.

"According to the shinigami, as soon as you kill someone you earn a one way ticket to hell," the look of sadness that consumed the younger of the duo's eyes told the old woman everything she needed to know, Naruto was telling the truth and it hurt him just as much as it hurt her.

"I… I see," it was at this point that Tsunade simply decided one thing, that there was probably nothing they could do about it. That is until a certain thought popped into her head concerning something that could save those that had died, "Naruto-kun, could you possibly ask the shinigami to change the requirements for hell?"

"Baa-chan, the shinigami doesn't choose when a person dies, how they die or where they go in the afterlife, it only makes their souls depart from this world and move onto the next," the spiky haired youth explained to the older ninja, earning a pained expression from her in the process.

"Well… that sucks," she stated in an uncharacteristic manner as she reached into her desk before letting out a moan of aggravation at the knowledge that Shizune had already confiscated her sake, "anyway, I know this might be hard for you but please at least try to give the idiotic pervert a chance."

"No," Naruto's answer was said with such an air of finality that Tsunade really couldn't stop herself from letting out a sigh and his stubbornness, hell he was just like Kushina at times… make that most of the time.

"Look Naruto-kun, he has an important job as far as Konoha is concerned, his spy network is too vital to the safety of the village so he didn't really have the time to raise you like he should've," the older blonde tried to reason only to be surprised by the blonds next words.

"I realise that… but he didn't even let me know he existed. All my life I thought I was just an orphan that no one wanted, I was hated by nearly everyone in the damn village and then I find out why, because I'm a jinchūriki. Throughout all of that all I had were the Ichiraku's, the sandaime and Iruka-sensei," Tsunade instantly noticed the change in the way the blond talked about the previous Hokage, back when she first met him the blond sounded like he loved the old man but now… he sounded as if he had been betrayed by the man, "and now I find out that I had a godfather! And that the sandaime _knew_ who my parents where and instead of letting me know he _lied to my face_ about it!"

Tsunade couldn't stop herself from feeling terrible about the young blond right now, here he was pretty much giving her reason after reason for him to abandon Konoha and never look back and yet here he was, sitting in her office practically crying his heart out at her and she knew that there was nothing she could do for him.

If Minato and Kushina had left anything for the boy then she would've given him that right here and now, however as the Hokage and his wife they didn't really own anything, instead just living in the Hokage mansion and using the Hokage's expenses for equipment and sustenance, meaning they didn't have much by the end of their lives outside of the decent sum of money they had accumulated before Minato had taken the mantle of Hokage.

However that sum had been used to buy Naruto an apartment and give him a monthly stipend before he graduated, leaving him with a surprisingly small amount of money left.

So there really wasn't anything the blonde woman could give the boy… outside of his _other_ heritage.

"Alright Naruto-kun, I suppose you are perfectly entitled to feel angry at him for that, however I do want you to train with him for a little longer," the newest Hokage told him, earning an angry glare off the blond, "so if you promise me that you'll train under him until he's satisfied with your progress, then I'll let you learn your _other _heritage."

"Huh? My other heritage?" was all the younger blond could say as he wondered exactly what the woman was offering him.

"The jutsu that made your father famous, the Hiraishin no jutsu."


	4. Chapter 4

Senjumaru had to admit she wasn't expecting to find a certain blond in his apartment already but here he was, lying on his bed staring away from the window despite feeling the breeze that came from the plane of glass being moved.

"Hello Uzumaki Naruto-san," she called instantly causing the blond to turn and give her a sad smile.

"Hello Senjumaru-chan," the suffix made her pause momentarily as she dug up what she knew of his mannerisms before pushing the usage to the side under the pretence that he tended to use more affectionate honorifics than normal people.

"I spoke with Yamamoto-sama concerning your situation," she stated calmly, earning a look of focus off the young blond, "his initial response was to stage your death so you could become a fulltime shinigami."

That little titbit of knowledge made the blond freeze in shock before the fulltime shinigami continued, "however I managed to convince him against that idea."

Cue a sigh of relief from the spiky haired blond.

"Now he has tasked me with two matters, the first is to train you to a level where you can survive against most hollows that invade the human world and the other one… well that isn't something you need to know about yet," she told him with a slightly disturbing giggle.

"Why do I get the feeling that the second part isn't going to be good for me?" the wild headed boy asked rhetorically as he slowly backed away.

"Oh, it's nothing that'll cause any harm, anyway did anything of interest happen while I was away?" she asked, pulling out her clipboard just in case something had indeed happened.

"You mean other than my _godfather_," he spat that word out with enough venom to make Orochimaru proud, "trying to steal my Zanpakutō and pushing me to use some of the Kyūbi's chakra? I had a meeting with Tsunade baa-chan… now she thinks that my Zanpakutō is _the_ shinigami and that I'm talking to it now."

"Hm, interesting… is that everything that happened?" she muttered with a small smile after she finished taking her notes.

"Well, Baa-chan offered to let me learn the Hiraishin if I went on a training trip if that stupid old pervert," Naruto informed her, earning a grimace from the young (looking) woman.

"That isn't good, if you aren't going to be in Konoha for a while then I won't be able to train you since I still have my duties to attend to here," Senjumaru stated solemnly, "Yamamoto-sama isn't going to be happy about this."

"Well, I guess it's a good thing I turned it down then," suddenly the shinigami perked up and looked at him with wide eyes, she honestly couldn't understand why the boy that she had observed for a few years would turn down such an opportunity.

"Why did you turn down that opportunity?" she asked him calmly, though there was evidence of surprise in her tone.

"Because I don't want to have anything else to do with that old bastard, he didn't even let me know he existed until he started training me for the Chūnin exams," the whiskered child stated with complete seriousness in his tone, earning a sigh off the significantly older woman.

"You do realise that he did ask the sandaime about you every month right?" the blank stare that accompanied the question made the blond blink in surprise as he tried to interpret the knowledge, "the whole reason he never met you before was to minimise the possibility of spies from other villages discovering your heritage and sending assassins to ensure you never grew up to be as dangerous as your father."

All of a sudden the blonds thoughts stalled. He had never thought of that possibility and now here he was being told that it was the case. However that didn't change the fact that he was still angry at the man, it was just that the primary reason for his anger had switched from his lack of action as a godfather, to his decision to take his Zanpakutō from him.

Yeah, that part still pissed him off, the old man's refusal to listen to him concerning the sword was something that the boy wasn't prepared to overlook since that sword _was_ literally a piece of his soul and the white haired pervert had pretty much man handled it.

"That doesn't change the fact he tried to steal my Zanpakutō… and that she stopped talking to me since then," it honestly hurt him that his new friend was no longer talking to him now, especially given how she should know that he didn't intentionally give her up.

It was all that stupid old perverts fault.

"Your Zanpakutō isn't talking to you anymore? Do you know why?" the shinigami asked him curiously, earning a small nod of acknowledgement from the younger of the duo.

"She told me before that she didn't want anyone other than me touching her and yet… two people already have," his voice possessed a sadness within it that was easily noticed by Senjumaru as she tried to understand what exactly was happening.

"Sit up," she commanded him upon finally deciding upon what to do to try and fix this apparent problem, "your training starts here with learning Jinzen."

"I'd rather find a way to talk with my Zanpakutō again," the spiky haired youth muttered from his position on his side, earning an unseen smirk off the significantly older shinigami.

"And that is exactly what Jinzen is," she stated calmly, making the blond finally turn to face her with shock on his face at the knowledge that she was planning on teaching him how to get his connection with his sword back, "now sit and place your Zanpakutō on your lap."

Almost immediately the blond proceeded to do exactly as the woman told him, eventually pushing his entire concentration into the object that lay on his lap, only to find that nothing happened.

However the blond was undeterred as he simply continued to sit in that position for hours, keeping his mind on a single thing… meeting his Zanpakutō's spirit again.

Senjumaru however was shocked upon seeing the boy sit still for so long while remaining awake, honestly it was something she had never anticipated seeing when she had watched the boy when he was younger (primarily because she was curious as to when the boy would snap and unleash the Kyūbi on Konoha, not that it happened but she had anticipated it).

Yet here he was, sitting cross legged with a look of complete concentration decorating his face as he tried to enter his mindscape once again in order to speak with his blade and the old woman could do nothing more than stare in shock at his ability to focus on a single thing when he wanted to.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto finally opened his eyes upon feeling something happen, immediately growing nervous upon realising he hadn't appeared in the throne room but the dungeon.

Looking forward he caught sight of the enormous cage and the blood red eyes that stared at him from behind it, the beasts razor sharp teeth gleaming in the darkness.

"**Welcome back brat,"** came the call from the giant chakra construct as it looked at him, **"I see that nearly dying has destroyed your sanity."**

The blue eyed blond noticed the giant beasts words and quickly came to a single conclusion, despite the creature looking out of his eyes it couldn't see what he saw, either that or it believed it all to be hallucinations.

"I don't have time for this, see ya later fox," came the whiskered boys bored call, earning a blink of surprise from the caged beast as he started walking away.

"**Why are you leaving so soon? Are you scared?"** the red eyed chakra beast asked with a malicious grin, only for it to drop when the blond didn't stop walking away, **"hey! Stop ignoring me you powerless monkey!"**

"Sorry but I've got more important things to deal with than your annoying yelling," and with that the young blond left the room and a now thoroughly confused bijū.

Naruto couldn't stop himself from feeling annoyed as he tried to find his way through the maze like dungeon that existed within his mind, honestly he just wanted to find the stairs and reach the proper palace where his Zanpakutō's spirit resided.

It felt like hours when he finally managed to find the stairs, quickly letting a smile grace his features as he started walking up them, easily making his way up to what appeared to be a large entrance hall, with the door to the dungeon taking the place of whatever lay outside of his mind.

Letting out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding, the young boy proceeded to walk up to the massive doors that he guessed probably led to the throne room he had appeared in last time.

Opening the decorative divider, the young boy instantly noted that it was indeed the throne room and that the spirit was not there… that is until he noticed the strange looking shadow of the throne.

Letting out a sigh he walked forward, slowly making his way towards the throne as his heart started racing at a million miles a minute, he didn't know why she was refusing to talk to him but he knew that it hurt to be ignored by his newest friend.

"Hey… are you okay?" he asked as he passed the throne to see the other blonde sitting in the foetal position behind the solid structure.

The reaction he received was not one he was expecting, with the young Zanpakutō letting out a small squeak of surprise before practically rolling to put the throne between them again.

"H-hey? What's going on? Why are you acting like this?" the whiskered genin asked as his mind wondered about why the young girl was acting the way she was.

Silence was his only answer, once again he found himself feeling terrible, and once again he mentally cursed his godfather for his refusal to listen to him.

"I… I'm sorry," the spiky haired blond said quietly, "I swear the only reason that old bastard took you from me was because he was too strong and fast."

Once again silence reigned as he gave what was actually a heartfelt apology to the soul sword.

"Why won't you talk to me? Didn't you promise that you'd always be there for me no matter what?" the young genin asked as tears threatened to fall from his eyes.

"Why?" the call that came from the Zanpakutō spirit was filled with pain and sadness as it asked it's question, "why do you want something as useless as me at your side?"

"What the hell do you mean by that!" now the boys sadness was replaced with anger, making the twin tailed girl jump in fright.

"I… I couldn't help you against ero-sennin," she muttered quietly making the other blond sigh in annoyance.

"So? Even the Kyūbi barely helped me against that bastard, it's not that you're useless, it's just that he's too strong," the blue eyed ninja stated with a hint of disgust at the knowledge that the man was actually pretty damn powerful despite being a dirty old pervert.

"B-but I," the spirit would've said more if the blond had let her but she soon found herself getting cut off by him.

"But you're my friend, aren't you?!" the spiky haired youth asked loudly, before seeing the face of his new partner peek out from behind the throne with watery eyes.

"WAHH!" and with that the blonde Zanpakutō flew off the floor and towards her wielder with tears streaming from her eyes, shocking the blond jinchūriki with her sudden change in action towards him, however he soon regained his bearings and proceeded to return the hug he was receiving.

"So are you going to talk to me now?" he asked, earning a nod of acceptance from the girl that was currently embedding her face in his chest.

XXX XXX XXX

Senjumaru really didn't know what to think right now, Naruto had been sitting in the same position for nearly three hours and hadn't responded to any of her shaking when she attempted to see if he had simply fallen asleep, indicating that he actually had managed to achieve Jinzen.

It was honestly rather disturbing for her, she remembered when Yamamoto-sama had started teaching everyone the art of Jinzen after he had created it in an attempt to further his Zanpakutō's power, it had taken her over two weeks to get to the point the blond genin had in two hours, and she was one of the quicker shinigami to achieve it.

She blinked in surprise when the blond finally opened his eyes before a cheerful smile adorned his face.

"I did it, my partner's talking to me again!" he stated with a large grin adorning his face as he raised his sword once again.

Once again the older shinigami stared at the blond with a hint of surprise in her eyes as she watched just how happy the boy seemed to be now that he could hear his Zanpakutō's voice once again. It didn't help that he called his sword his partner instead of tool either.

Then again the boy seemed to be channelling a bit of Nimaiya Ōetsu when it came to his Zanpakutō, at least from what she had heard of the man, she'd never actually met him since according to Yamamoto-sama he left the thirteen divisions long ago.

"You are an interesting person Uzumaki Naruto, I look forward to working with you," the young looking woman stated with a cheerful smile, making the blond stare at her blankly.

"What do you mean 'working with me'?" the whiskered child asked suspiciously, earning another smile off the woman.

"Well, I'm supposed to train you so that you can assist me in protecting this village from Hollow attacks," she explained calmly, making the blond blink several more times before he simply decided to look down in depression.

"I don't get a say in this do I?" he asked her dejectedly, understanding that this Yamamoto person sounded like he would probably kill him if he tried to defy the man.

"That's right," she stated chirpily before pulling out her clipboard, "now before you go to sleep, could you please show me your seal? I've been interested in it for quite some time already."

"W-what do you mean show you my seal?!" the blond asked out clearly offended by the woman's bluntness concerning his burden.

"I mean can you please remove your top and channel your chakra so I can see the seal holding the Kyūbi?" she reworded the question while still keeping her chirpy voice, "think of it as payment for the training you are about to receive."

"The hell! You're supposed to train me anyway right!" the whiskered blond practically yelled as he pointed a finger at the woman that now seemed rather interested in the wall to her side, "(sigh) fine!"

"Thank you," the dark haired woman said as the boy simply decided it was probably easier to give in to her request than keep yelling at her.

It didn't take him long to remove his jacket and t-shirt before he put his hands in a ram seal and proceeded to channel his chakra, rendering the intricate seal visible to the naked eye.

It was with a creepy smile that the dark haired shinigami proceeded to copy the design onto her clipboard, making sure she got the entire array perfectly correct in all but scale, even going so far as to put a note of the scale the drawing was at.

The entire process of copying the design took little more than five minutes, rather impressive for someone that was copying the complex array to a perfect scale.

"All done, thank you Uzumaki Naruto for this unique opportunity," she stated happily as the blond simply continued to sit on his bed, though he quickly took his hands out of the ram seal and allow the seal to vanish once again.

"Uh… no problem?" the whiskered child replied with uncertainty in his tone as he quickly proceeded to put his pyjama shirt on after deciding that it was too late in the night to put his regular clothes back on.

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow, we'll see how your Zanjutsu ranks then," the dark haired woman stated with her cheerful tone as she clapped her hands before jumping out of his window, leaving the blond to close the window, curtains and change his pants for bed.

XXX XXX XXX

The next day, Jiraiya sat atop the Hokage monument wondering where he had gone wrong with his godson. Tsunade had told him about the boys new knowledge and the reason he lost it when he had taken the sword.

To think the sword was actually the shinigami.

That fact was actually rather terrifying when he thought about it, though not as terrifying as one other matter, the fact that the boy had turned down the Hiraishin just so he didn't have to train under the legendary sannin.

In other words the boy would be no match for Akatsuki when they finally made their move against him. Jiraiya knew that Kakashi may be skilled but he lacked the raw ability to go toe to toe with a member of that organisation and Naruto would need to be raised to a level where he could face down someone like Itachi one on one and survive long enough for back up to arrive, something he would probably need the Kyūbi's chakra to do.

Even then there was no guarantee it would be enough against people like that, these were people that actually possessed the power and skill to hunt actual bijū after all.

So he was certain Naruto needed training from someone like him, someone that could nurture his latent talent and make him a true threat to even the strongest of shinobi.

Letting out a sigh he couldn't help but think that this situation was all that damned swords fault. If it hadn't shown up then he wouldn't have ended up pushing his godson away because of it, nor would the boy know of their relationship towards each other.

However the reality was that the blade did appear and the relationship that he had been slowly building with his godson had been shot to hell because of it.

Looking out over the village he spotted a familiar orange dot walking towards the hot springs, making the white haired man wonder why the boy was going there of all places, after all that seemed like the most obvious place to find him.

His mind quickly pieced together a scenario, one were Naruto had rethought the possibility of being trained by one of the sannin and was searching him out to ask for the necessary teachings.

However he also knew that it was possible the boy was going there for another reason but if he was going there to find him then he would make sure he was there for the boy to find.

With a swirl leaves, the old gama sennin vanished before reappearing at the hot springs, ready for another encounter with the spiky haired youth.

Immediately he proceeded to put his eye to a hole in the fence separating the male and female sides of the hot springs where he happily soaked in the beauty of the women on the other side for several minutes before he noticed Naruto's presence, he wouldn't start a conversation with the blond since as far as he was concerned, it was Naruto's job to ask for help.

That was a mistake.

Naruto had calmly walked up to him, getting incredibly close before stopping, Jiraiya had assumed the boy was trying to think of how to ask him to train him, that is before he found a foot planted on his backside, knocking him into and through the fence to face the wrath of the Konoichi bathing on the other side.

"Stupid pervert," was all that the spiky haired blond muttered as he walked away, his face never once turning to face the old man as he was mercilessly beaten by the angry women.

Several minutes later the beat down had ceased and the now satisfied beauties had left the hot spring, leaving a whimpering sennin lying on the floor while Naruto remained facing away from the man.

"I want to make some things clear to you _Jiraiya_," Naruto stated coldly, making the old man stand and face him with a serious expression, "I've just learned that about the reason behind your lack of presence in my childhood, so for now I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt as far as being my godfather is concerned."

The gama sennin simply continued to stare at the boy that chose to explain his current actions to him.

"However, that doesn't change the fact that I _will not _forgive you for trying to take my sword from me," the legendary shinobi could hear the venom in his godson's tone upon making that statement and had to suppress a flinch that threatened to overtake his body, "what I'm saying right now is that I am prepared to give you a second chance to prove yourself to me. Understand this though, I still refuse to go on a training trip with you, am I clear?"

Now that was the last thing the old man had expected to hear, that the boy was prepared to give him a second chance but would still refuse to train under him, of course it was a situation that really didn't sit well with him, honestly he'd be happier if it was the other way around with the boy accepting the training trip but refusing to accept him as a person.

"Look Naruto I understand that you're upset but you really need to get the proper training," the legendary ninja stated seriously, earning a glare from the young boy once again.

"Look here Jiraiya, I don't trust you to train me properly anymore, so I'm going to undergo my own _private_ training while I stay _here in Konoha_," the young boy informed the sannin with a bitterness clear in his voice.

"And who's going to teach you eh? The shinigami?" the experienced shinobi asked mockingly.

"Yes," the sheer lack of hesitation in the blonds voice upon saying that made the older man freeze, he hadn't been serious when he had mentioned the shinigami, however now he could see exactly why the boy was so quick to dismiss the older ninja's training.

If he had to choose between a Kage and a Kami he know which one he'd choose.

"You're saying that you actually are going to get trained by the shinigami?" he asked while hiding his shock with an air of seriousness.

"Yes, as long as I'm in Konoha that is," Naruto informed the man with a small glare as the man took a glance at his Zanpakutō.

"And why do you have to stay in Konoha for it to train you?" now Jiraiya was really suspicious and his suspicions were only increased by the blonds answer.

"It's complicated and I don't want to talk about it," with that the young genin started to walk away only to feel the older man's hand on his shoulder, "let go of me."

Jiraiya almost shivered at the cold tone the boy used to make his demand however his hand remained firm until he had finished his next sentence.

"Look Naruto, I've made a serious screw up trying to protect you, so this time I'm just going to say one thing, be careful and don't trust everything you hear," with that said the old sannin let go of his godson's shoulder before watching the boy walk off without saying a word. Honestly it hurt the old man that his godson had been pushed so far from him but he knew that there was nothing he could do anymore.

He just hoped the boy wouldn't get hurt by whatever he had gotten himself into.


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto couldn't stop himself from falling to his back as a deep slash tore into his vulnerable chest. He didn't know how much blood he had lost in the past hour but he was sure it was a lot.

His entire body was littered with cuts that ranged from shallow nips to the nearly fatal valley that flowed across his chest. Honestly he thought he was going to die soon, that the shinigami he had trusted had in fact failed to convince her boss to let him stay alive and had instead decided to say something to let the boys guard down.

His mind stopped thinking along those lines as he felt a warm pair of hands press themselves to the largest wound he possessed before a strange warmth proceeded to flow into the injury and the pain from it began to subside.

"I will admit, I am impressed, you noticeably improved during our spar," the dark haired shinigami stated calmly, earning a glare off the whiskered child.

"You call that a spar?" the spiky haired youth almost growled out, he was certain the woman had been trying to kill him during their battle.

"Of course, if I had been fighting you properly then you'd have died within the first five seconds," the young looking woman stated with a cheeky smile that infuriated the whiskered boy.

"Screw you! I'm not that weak!" Naruto yelled, earning a raised eyebrow from the shinigami.

"You yourself admitted that you were no match for any of the sannin and I not only possess far more raw power than them but also have approximately fifty years of experience on them," the dark eyed woman stated calmly, making her new student avert his eyes.

"Uh… Senjumaru-chan? How old are you anyway?" the blue eyed boy asked as his curiosity got the better of him.

"In seventeen days' time I will be celebrating my two hundredth and twelfth death day," the older of the two stated calmly, earning a few blinks off the whiskered boy.

"Death day?" immediately the dark haired woman rectified his lack of understanding.

"It's like a birthday only it is based off the day you die," immediately the blond began to pale at the thought of just how old this person really was.

"So let me get this straight, you've been dead for two hundred and twelve years?" he earned a nod of acknowledgement from the attractive shinigami before moving onto his next question, "and how old were you when you died?"

"I don't know," once again the blond was left with confusion clear in his mind before he decided to ask her a simple question.

"How the hell don't you know?" he really didn't understand the fact this woman didn't know how old she had been when she died, then again there was a lot he didn't know concerning the afterlife.

"Because I underwent Konsō when I died," the young looking woman stated with a sad smile.

"Huh? What's Konsō?" Naruto asked as the last of his injuries was closed up by the strange energy that encompassed the shinigami's hands before she proceeded to sit down next to him.

"The act of sending a soul to the afterlife, souls that have undergone Konsō will lose the memories of their life, though the rate at which they lose them differs between individuals," the dark eyed shinigami explained, earning a sad look off the young boy.

"So you don't remember anything about your time alive?" the blue eyed blond asked with a hint of sadness in his tone.

"Not a thing," the two hundred and odd year old said without missing a beat.

"Aren't you sad about that?" the whiskered child asked his newest sensei, wondering how she seemed so unconcerned about her lack of memories.

"Not really, I may not remember my time before dying but I have quite a few fond memories that I've managed to collect since then," the dark haired shinigami said with a small smile.

Naruto couldn't stop himself from smiling a little at that statement, finally understanding why she seemed so calm about her situation, she had simply come to accept the present and not dwell on what she couldn't remember.

Time seemed to pass by slowly as the duo of shinigami simply rested, something that honestly surprised Senjumaru who had believed that her blond apprentice would probably jump up and down and try to get her to teach him more as soon as possible.

"Hey, Senjumaru-chan?" the calm tone that the blue eyed genin said her name in made her look at him to see that he'd proceeded to lay on his back and start looking at the clouds.

"Yes Naruto-san?" she responded calmly, though silently wondering what he wanted to say.

"If people saw us training, would they see me getting cut up by nothing?" the curious child asked.

"_If_ they saw us training then yes they would, however they won't," the dark haired woman said with conviction in her tone.

"What makes you so sure Senjumaru-chan?" the whiskered boy questioned since he didn't know why she seemed so confident about that.

"Because I put up a barrier that repels observers before we began to train," the older of the duo responded, earning wide eyes off the young blond.

"Wait, so you're saying that no one can come here now?" once again Naruto was shocked by the woman's apparent abilities and there was just one thing that popped into his head concerning that.

"Can you teach me how to create barriers too?" he probably would've started jumping up and down in excitement if he wasn't feeling so weak from spilling enough blood to paint the Hokage's office red.

"In time, Kidō is a relatively complex art and not something that should be attempted without first possessing at least a reasonable level of control of your reiryoku," the older shinigami informed him calmly, earning a nod of acceptance from the blond, he really couldn't deny the need for control after learning the rasengan and realising how difficult it was even though it was using the same principals as water walking.

"I understand," once again silence reigned as Naruto continued to look at the sky before eventually opening his mouth again, "you know, I always wondered why Shikamaru always did this, now it makes sense."

"Really? Why's that?" the two hundred year old asked, earning a small smile off the blond that lay next to her.

"Cause it's relaxing to look at the clouds and see what you can make out of them, take that one there, it looks like a bear," the whiskered genin said prompting the older of the duo to look at the cloud he was pointing towards.

"Hm… you're right, still, wasting time watching clouds doesn't help me with my ambitions," the ravenette said calmly before pulling out her clipboard once again.

"Huh? Your ambitions?" now Naruto was really curious and it showed as he sat up to get a better look at his sensei.

"One day I want to gain the approval of Yamamoto-sama to create a special division dedicated to researching and developing science and technology," Senjumaru said seriously as she proceeded to look over the notes she had on her clipboard.

"That sounds pretty awesome," the jinchūriki said with a smile, causing the older woman to look at him with a hint of sadness in her eyes.

"Yamamoto-sama doesn't think so," her words surprised the blond before she continued, "he says 'time wasted thinking could be used training to destroy hollows', I want to prove him wrong, that creating new technologies can help in the destruction of hollows."

"He sounds like a right dick," Naruto's words made a small chuckle escape the older of the duo's lips.

"That doesn't change the simple fact that he is monstrously powerful," the more experienced shinigami stated while looking down.

"Huh? You make it sound like going up against him is suicide," the spiky haired youth said with a hint of humour in his tone.

"(sigh) Naruto-san, do you remember how powerful the Kyūbi is?" she asked him seriously, earning a nod of confirmation from her apprentice, "well Yamamoto-sama could crush it with a single finger he is that powerful."

After a few seconds the young blond started laughing at that news, though the two hundred year olds expression didn't change.

"I'm being serious Naruto-san, Yamamoto-sama could probably crush all the bijū with just his reiatsu if they could feel it," the raven haired shinigami reiterated for the blond who immediately stopped laughing.

"What's reiatsu?" the whiskered child asked only to feel an oppressive force hit him and force him to his knees.

"Reiatsu is the controlled released of Reiryoku and it is my reiatsu that you are feeling right now," she explained to him before letting up on her spiritual energy, "only those that are spiritually aware can feel reiatsu otherwise humans would collapse every time a hollow appeared in the real world."

Naruto couldn't stop himself from gasping for air upon the release of the pressure, to think that such a feeling was possible from sheer power alone.

"The more reiryoku you possess the easier it is to counter reiatsu and right now you were defenceless against mine," Senjumaru stated calmly before continuing, "and I am defenceless against Yamamoto-sama's reiatsu."

"J-just how old is he to be that strong?" Naruto couldn't stop himself from asking that question, he wanted to know just how much longer the strongest shinigami had been training over him.

"He is about one and a half thousand years old," immediately Naruto starting gaping at the knowledge of just how old this man was and instantly understood why this Yamamoto guy was so strong.

"T-that's old," and with that the spiky haired youth decided to drop back onto his back.

"I know," and with that Senjumaru returned to her clipboard knowing that Naruto would probably need quite a bit of rest to allow him to regain the blood he had lost during training.

XXX XXX XXX

Haruno Sakura was angry. Why was she angry? Because Naruto hadn't bothered to even so much as say hi to their hospitalised teammate since returning with Tsunade.

Sure she was happy that Tsunade had managed to heal Sasuke but she had thought Naruto cared about his teammate even if they tended to clash most of the time. She thought it was just a friendly rivalry between two boys.

But here she was trying to keep Sasuke company as he sat in the hospital bed with a far off look in his eyes, as if he wasn't there and his mind had decided to focus on other matters.

She had tried to talk to him but he just ignored her and despite how much she hated to admit it, she was certain only Naruto would be able to get past the emotional wall that had been erected around her crush.

However she hadn't even seen the blond once since his return and it honestly annoyed her. She knew he had returned, Izumo and Kotetsu had told her that they had seen Naruto return with the two sannin so he wasn't dead.

"Naruto-baka's being really inconsiderate isn't he Sasuke-kun?" she asked the raven haired boy in an attempt to break the uncomfortable silence that existed around the dark eyed Uchiha, only to receive no response at all.

The young pink haired girl couldn't do anything more than let out a sigh of depression as she watched the boy she had been chasing after for over five years ignore her again, if it wasn't for Tsunade assuring her that Sasuke had been cured she would think he was still in a coma.

"Sakura," the young boys voice suddenly said, instantly making the young konoichi's eyes water in happiness at the fact he was finally talking again.

"Yes Sasuke-kun?" she was so happy she just wanted to prolong their talk as much as possible.

"Please, find Naruto and bring him here," instantly Sakura deflated but at the same time she also had to admit to herself that it wasn't unexpected.

"Of course Sasuke-kun," her tone was far more subdued this time and without another word being passed between the duo, the pink haired genin left the hospital room.

"_Naruto, you've grown so much since joining this team, when we graduated you were no match for me but now… now you defeated an opponent I was powerless against, I need to see if you really have grown stronger than me," _were the thoughts of the last loyal Uchiha as he sat in the hospital bed looking out on the village.

XXX XXX XXX

For the first time in her life Sakura was cursing herself for not giving her blond teammate any attention outside of team activities, if she had then she may have known where to start looking to find him but right now all she could do was wander around aimlessly while hoping she'd bump into her annoying teammate.

Her eyes were eventually drawn to a crowd splitting and staring at whatever was walking down the middle and it took her a few seconds to realise what it was.

It was humanoid in shape however it was coloured a combination of dark red and orange… it was the orange part that let the young Konoichi identify the figure, only Naruto wore orange after all.

"NARUTO!" her voiced was filled with fear as she immediately rushed to her teammates side hoping that he wasn't going to die there and then.

"Huh? Oh hey Sakura-chan, how are you?" the blood covered genin's response shocked her, mainly because he sounded little more than tired despite his current state.

"How am I? You're the one that looks like you're about to die!" she shouted at him, earning a nervous smile off him.

"Uh, sorry I was just sparring with my new sensei," the spiky haired youth said while rubbing the back of his head and painting more of his hair red.

"Sparring? What sort of sparring ends in you being covered in blood?!" Sakura honestly couldn't understand why her normally loud teammate seemed so unconcerned about his current state of attire.

"The painful type," the orange clad boy stated bluntly, earning a set of wide eyes off his teammate.

"That's it, you're going to the hospital right now!" and with those words, the pink haired Konoichi grabbed her whiskered teammate in an attempt to take him to get his injuries looked over… that is until she found the arm she had latched onto yanked from her grip.

"I'm fine Sakura-chan, sensei already healed me," Naruto told her before he started to walk towards his apartment.

"H-hey! Where are you going?! Even if you got fixed up by your sensei you still need to get checked out at the hospital!" the young Konoichi said with a hint of anger in her tone at him choosing to ignore the danger to his health.

"Sakura-chan, I heal fast without help, I don't need to be looked over when I'm like this," the blood soaked boy stated with a reassuring smile.

"W-well at least visit Sasuke-kun, he wants to see you," the green eyed girl finally said upon realising that she couldn't convince the boy to get himself checked over.

"Ah crap! I knew I'd forgotten something important!" the jinchūriki shouted in a small panic, earning a punch from his teammate.

"Dammit you baka! How can you forget about your own teammate when he's in the hospital! Don't you remember what Kakashi-sensei said back on our first day as ninja!" the now annoyed Konoichi asked him angrily.

"Those that break the rules are trash, those that abandon their comrades are worse than trash," the seriousness in Naruto's tone caught the pinkette off guard as he lifted himself from the ground, "I'm sorry Sakura-chan, it's just my life has been turned upside down during these past few days so I've been busy with other things."

At his words, Sakura began to wonder what could possibly have caused such a response from Naruto of all people, so it was with curiosity drenching her voice that she asked the boy what was going on.

"Naruto, what happened?" Naruto could hear the concern laying beneath the thick layer of curiosity in her voice and he contemplated telling her what had happened, however there was a small part of him that wanted to keep the new part of him a secret.

"Sorry Sakura-chan but I don't want to tell anyone just yet," he told her with a hint of sadness in his tone as he decided to keep what he knew to himself.

Now Sakura was truly worried, the mere idea of Naruto keeping a secret from her wasn't something that she had ever thought would happen but here he was saying that he didn't want to talk to her about whatever was going on in his life.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she really wanted to help her teammate even if it was just to have a shoulder to lean on if he needed support, however the look she got in exchange told her everything she needed to know.

He didn't want her help.

That fact hurt her, the fact that not only was she quickly being left behind by her two teammates but neither of them wanted to confide in her, it made her feel completely useless.

"Yeah, I'm sure Sakura-chan, I'll just go and get myself clean before seeing Sasuke," it was with a warm smile that the blond turned to leave his pink haired teammate who could do little more than stare at the ground in despair.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto had to admit, cleaning all of the blood off his body was bloody hard (no pun intended). It wouldn't have been so hard if it was still wet but most of it had dried and he was certain his jumpsuit would be bin bag material with how many cuts and blood stains it had obtained from his spar.

The real problem thought was that he didn't have any spares. So he would have to find something in his wardrobe that could still fit him before going out to see his teammate.

He just hoped he had something.

Walking out of the now red shower he put a towel around his waist before walking out of his bathroom and through his living room towards his bedroom before he noticed something that instantly made his eyes bulge.

"Senjumaru-chan! What the hell are you doing here?!" immediately the dark haired shinigami got out of the chair she was sitting on at the young boys table, making the whiskered boys brain stall upon seeing her in regular civilian clothes with a large bag at her side.

"I came to give you some replacement clothes, I even had them lined with seals that make blood slide off them and allow them to be repaired with just a bit of chakra," the long dead woman informed him calmly as she handed him the bag.

"Uh… thanks?" the blond child said with uncertainty in his tone before he decided to ask her a simple question, "uh, how did you get theses and why are you dressed like that?"

"I'm glad you asked, you are the first person outside of myself to witness my newest invention! The Gigai!" and with those words the shinigami proceeded to hit herself with a strange glove that caused her to split in two with the civilian clothed version falling to the floor while she stood proudly in her shinigami uniform.

"Uh… eh?" Naruto couldn't bring himself to say anything coherent upon seeing the woman split in two in a manner that was completely different to a bunshin.

"The Gigai is an artificial body I have designed to allow shinigami to pose as humans while in the living world," she stated with a grin etched onto her face before it dropped a little, "unfortunately I can't seem to get it to stop blocking most of my power."

"I see… so that's how you managed to get me these clothes," the nearly naked boy said before his face took on another questioning gaze, "but where did you get the money to buy these?"

"Your wallet," the raven haired shinigami said while holding up his toad wallet, which he affectionately refers to as 'gama-chan'.

"Hey! Give Gama-chan back!" he yelled only to find the woman placing the wallet on his table.

"I only took your wallet to buy you new clothes after our session together, I have no intention of keeping it away from you or spending all your money,"she told him calmly, "now why don't you go and get dressed, that is unless you want to give me a free show."

Instantly the blonds face turned redder than his mother's hair as he vanished into his bedroom with the new clothes, leaving a chuckling two hundred year old in his living room.

"Now where can I hide this?" she muttered to herself as she looked down at her newest invention.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto was the centre of attention as he walked through the crowded streets of Konoha wearing his new attire, which he had to admit looked pretty much the same as his shinigami robes with the exception of his hitae-ate around his forehead and the sleeveless, orange haori that he wore over the black clothes.

Of course the simple fact that he had changed his attire was enough for the civilians to take note of his new appearance and the fact that he didn't look anywhere near as bad as before. He was sure he even saw a girl blush at him.

However he was more focused on the fact that his teammate wanted to see him about something, he didn't know what Sasuke wanted but that didn't change the fact that he wanted something.

So it was with his well-known determination that he ignored the looks he was receiving and moved at a fast walking pace towards the hospital where he quickly made his way to the receptionist.

"Hello, I'm here to see Uchiha Sasuke," the whiskered boy stated to the woman who gave him a quick once over with her eyes before telling him the room number, "thanks."

It didn't take long for him to reach the correct room and he could tell that his body had already replaced the blood he had lost earlier, probably due to the Kyūbi sealed within him… he would have to talk to it at some point later.

Opening the door he was greeted by the sight of Sakura sitting next to the bed with Sasuke sitting upright and looking out of the window as Sakura tried to start a conversation with him.

"Hey Sasuke, you wanted to see me?" the whiskered boy said calmly, earning Sakura's attention and a pair of wide eyes upon seeing her teammate in clothes that weren't that hideous orange jumpsuit.

"N-Naruto, your clothes," she said in a manner that neared incoherence courtesy of the shock upon seeing him like that.

"My new sensei bought them for me," he told her calmly before noting that Sasuke had finally taken his eyes off the window and was now fixing him with a hard stare, "so what did you want to see me about teme."

Sakura was about to berate her teammate for calling Sasuke names that is until her eyes widened in shock and disbelief upon hearing Sasuke's demand.

"Fight me."

XXX Omake XXX

Naruto was the centre of attention as he walked through the crowded streets of Konoha wearing his new attire, which he had to admit looked pretty much the same as his shinigami robes with the exception of his hitae-ate around his forehead and the sleeveless, orange haori that he wore over the black clothes.

However he was forced to wonder why everyone seemed so intent on moving away from him and covering children's eyes, well except for young girl who all looked at him with massive blushes on their faces as they licked their lips in a hungry manner upon seeing him.

The entire situation freaked him out as he proceeded to walk towards the hospital faster than before, hoping to meet his team before something bad happens.

Reaching the hospital he was greeted by the sight of the receptionist reading a paper.

"Hello, I'm here to see Uchiha Sasuke," the whiskered boy stated to the woman who looked down to the patient list before telling him the room number, "thanks."

It didn't take him long to reach the room and as soon as he opened the door he drew the attention of his two teammates who both quickly covered their eyes and looked away.

"NARUTO-BAKA! PUT ON SOME DAMN CLOTHES!" the pink haired girl shouted at him.

Meanwhile:

Senjumaru couldn't stop herself from giggling as she watched the villages reaction to her prank, who knew giving him clothes only visible to the spiritually aware would be so much fun?


	6. Chapter 6

"Fight me."

Naruto froze upon hearing those two words, not because of fear or nervousness, honestly he wanted to fight Sasuke for a while now and that desire was only increased by the disruption of the Chūnin exams where they would've met in the semi-finals.

Of course Gaara was a tough opponent for his teammate but he was confident the raven haired genin could've won as long as the Ichibi didn't influence the red head, which he was certain only happened because of the invasion.

So here he was, right in front of his teammate who obviously wanted a match and he knew he should refuse, he knew that neither of them were at full strength and above all else, he knew that as teammates, they shouldn't fight.

But none of that mattered.

A grin started etching itself onto his face as he found his blood boiling at the chance of proving himself against his lifelong rival.

"Where?" his response immediately caused Sakura's eyes to widen in horror as Sasuke gained a dark smirk at the blonde's acceptance.

"The roof," and with that single statement, the dark haired avenger proceeded to climb out of the hospital bed as the whiskered shinigami turned to leave for the battlefield.

"NO! stop it both of you!" Sakura shouted with obvious fear in her tone at the sheer fact her two teammates were about to face each other in a serious confrontation while neither was in perfect health.

"Sakura, stay out of this," the young Uchiha commanded sternly, only to blink in slight surprise when she shook her head vigorously before moving in front of him in an attempt to deny him his request.

"Yeah, right now, we both want to fight each other, we both want to see who's the top dog of team seven," Naruto instantly agreed with the raven haired genin.

"N-no! why does there have to be a top dog? Why can't you just be friends?" the pink haired genin asked desperately, earning a glare off the young shinigami.

"Because of everything," Naruto stated, making her look at him with wide eyes, "all my life I've been made fun of, everyone always laughed at me and cheered at him!"

Sakura found herself wondering why Naruto was saying something like that, found herself beginning to dread hearing the answer to what she wanted to know.

"Everywhere I went, it was always 'did you hear the last Uchiha beat _that_ boy again?', 'did you see the last Uchiha going to the dango stand? Oh, maybe I should visit there more often'," the blue eyed genin said in a mockery of the villagers voices, making Sakura winced slightly at his apparent anger towards the people that said that, "and then there was me, 'did you hear? _That_ boy failed the graduation exam,', 'good riddance, imagine if they let _him_ be a ninja,', 'did you see _that _boy go to that ramen stand?', 'no, maybe I should avoid there from now on'."

Throughout his mockery of the villagers, Sakura found herself feeling worse and worse, she had never bothered to listen to the conversations of adults, instead finding it more fun to talk about the things that happened at the academy with her friends (or fantasize about Sasuke), so she never once considered that he was _that_ disliked by the village.

"W-well maybe if you hadn't been so much trouble when you were younger," she started to try and reason only to find herself getting cut off by the sword wielding blond.

"No, you don't get it, I started acting like that _because_ the villagers hate me," he informed her, however before the conversation could get any further, another voice cut in.

"Stop wasting time with her, our fight is what's important," instantly Sakura was once again thrown out of her thoughts as she turned to face the Uchiha, only to find that he was walking past her in her distracted state.

"Yeah, let's do this Sasuke," and without another word the spiky haired blond turned back towards the exit, his thoughts focused almost completely on the fact that now was his chance to prove himself against the prodigy, to prove that he was worthy of calling himself his father's son.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto stood calmly, his hand resting peacefully on the hilt of his Zanpakutō as he stared across the roof towards his teammate who in turn, stood with his hands in his pockets and a blank stare on his face.

"So, do you want me to take you on with my sword or my fists?" Naruto asked seriously, earning a snort off the raven haired genin.

"Please… you'll need every advantage you can get to defeat me," the dark eyed boy stated with a grin, earning a glare off the spiky haired youth.

_"Sorry, but I want to wipe that smug smile off the bastards face,"_ Naruto thought as he took his hand off the sword at his waist.

_"And you will! After all, you're my awesome Shukun!" _the blade called out to him, making his smirk widen even more than it had started.

"Well then, I guess I'll just beat the crap out of you with my bare fists then!" and with that warcry, Naruto shot forwards while focusing extra Reiryoku to his legs in order to increase his speed. It was a very simple trick he had discovered while sparring with Senjumaru, that by focusing extra large quantities of Reiryoku into any part of his body, he could effectively increase his capabilities.

Of course his increased speed from all the previous times the other members of team seven had seen him caught both off guard, even if Sasuke managed to pull himself back together fast enough to barely dodge the strike before sending a counter straight towards the whiskered genin's face.

Mere seconds later the duo were once again standing several feet away from each other, with Naruto rubbing his nose, while Sasuke clutched his hand with a grimace adorning his face.

"Dammit, what did you do dobe?" the raven haired avenger asked with obvious anger in his tone.

"Wouldn't you like to know," was the only response he received before finding the blond once again charging towards him.

XXX XXX XXX

"Interesting, a controlled burst of Reiryoku to lessen the damage he received while simultaneously hurting his opponent," Senjumaru muttered as she watched the conflict from a nearby rooftop.

She had decided to continue to observe Naruto while he left to meet with the last 'loyal' member of the Uchiha clan, sure she knew otherwise, Sasuke was far _less_ loyal to Konoha than Itachi was but she was one of only seven people operating in the realm of the living that knew the truth about that.

"So who do you think will win the spar shinigami-chan?" came a calm voice that immediately caught the two hundred year olds attention, "I have my money on Naruto."

"Why, hello there Quincy-san, I didn't expect to see you here," the dark haired death god stated with a strained smile, despite being on cordial terms with the man she was currently talking to, it didn't change one simple fact… she didn't like him as a person, then again she didn't like anyone that tried to interfere with her research.

And this man had tried to interfere with her research on Uzumaki Naruto when he was younger.

"Don't tell me you're still sore over what happened a few years ago?" the man asked with a smile as he sat down next to the woman, "still, forget it, what's important is simply, how badly do you think Naruto will beat the Uchiha?"

"Given his natural talent in the shinigami arts, I have no doubt Naruto-san will win, that is, unless Uchiha-san uses his Juinjutsu," the darkly dressed woman admitted seriously, earning a nod off the man sitting next to her.

"Yeah, that thing really sucks, kinda makes me want to go against my vow of secrecy and destroy the soul fragment within," the man admitted, "it would be so easy too, just fire off a single simple shot and… bam! Soul fragment gone for good."

"Perhaps, but how many questions would it raise for the mark to suddenly lose its corruption?" the young shinigami asked him seriously.

"Yeah, I know… it doesn't change the fact it sucks that I can't do anything to get rid of it without endangering my people's anonymity," the figure admitted freely, "though that does raise a question, how much does Tsunade know about Naruto new state of existence?"

"Not a lot, she believes that his sword is the physical manifestation of _the_ shinigami and that he is going to be trained by an actual deity," the two hundred year old stated calmly.

"Is that so… then I guess there is something I can do to deal with those damn curse seals," the Quincy stated with a grin before forming a single needle out of the spirit particles contained within the air.

"I still find it impressive that you and your partner are the only Quincy that can gather Reishi without a focus," the shinigami admitted with a hint of curiosity in her voice.

"Sorry Shinigami-chan but as I've said before, the only conclusion we can come to is that it's because of our training with using chakra," the man admitted with a grin.

"And yet, you've never allowed me to study your ability in detail," the dark haired woman stated with a pout, earning a dry chuckle from the man sitting beside her.

"What can I say? I can't even stand the biannual health checks at the hospital, the idea of being put through another I could avoid doesn't appeal to me," and in that instant he flicked his wrist, releasing the spirit needle that flew with blinding speed and proceeded to strike the three tomoe mark that represented Orochimaru's corruption within the raven haired Uchiha.

Immediately the sharingan user proceeded to scream in pain as he clutched the mark, immediately causing the young pinkette to run over to him with speed she rarely showed.

However both occupants of the roof took more note of the fact that Naruto turned to face them, obviously having noticed the needle strike his teammate.

"Go and tell him what I did, I'd rather not be seen around here," the man asked the darkly dressed swordswoman as he flashed Naruto a thumbs up before vanishing from the spot.

XXX XXX XXX

A fist rebounded after striking an arm, a leg was blocked with nearly no effort, no matter what Sasuke did he found that his blond teammates defence was stronger than the offense it was defending against.

It didn't help the raven haired Uchiha that he was taking more damage from his own strikes than Naruto was. As such even his sharingan wasn't of much help, especially given how it didn't see anything happening with the blonds chakra.

That thought was actually rather scary for the young Uchiha, Naruto had managed to find some type of technique that the sharingan could _not_ see through or copy, something that should've been impossible but obviously was. Even Kekkei Genkai could be read and seen through even if they couldn't be copied, however whatever Naruto was doing was beyond the sharingan's ability to perceive and that possibility was scary.

Naruto on the other hand was almost giddy with excitement, he had managed to accidentally create a new technique at the very start of this spar and he couldn't wait to show Senjumaru his new skill.

He had initially intended on focusing his Reiryoku to his skin to harden it, however he had accidentally released it in his haste to get it there that it had literally _hit his opponent back_.

That fact was only further compounded by the fact that he was now pulling off the defensive technique with barely any difficulty, only having to worry about the timing and releasing the power just before Sasuke's attacks landed, something his Reiryoku infused eyesight and reflexes made much simpler.

Sakura however was simply staring in amazement at the fight she was witnessing, Naruto had grown so much since she last saw him fight that she was wondering exactly what had happened to make him improve so much.

_"Uh, sorry I was just sparring with my new sensei," the spiky haired youth said while rubbing the back of his head and painting more of his hair red._

Her mind quickly remembered that event and her eyes widened in disbelief, this increase in power simply came from him getting a new sensei? Just how skilled was this person?

Then everything stopped.

Naruto was easily the first to notice it, the needle that shot into Sasuke's neck before the raven haired teen grasped it as he yelled in agony.

Sakura instantly moved with rarely used speed towards the down Uchiha while Naruto turned to face the direction he saw the needle come from, only for his eyes to widen at the sight of a man giving him a thumbs up, standing next to Senjumaru before vanishing in what he was certain was a burst of speed.

_"Wait… that was,"_ his thoughts were halted as the dark haired shinigami flashed over to the roof he and his teammate had been fighting on.

"Hello Naruto-san, please refrain from speaking and I will explain what happened to you, though you would probably do better to pay attention to your teammate," the dark robed woman informed him calmly, making Naruto look towards his teammates, only to see Sasuke wearing a smirk on his lips as he pushed Sakura away from him.

"Hey, Naruto, are we going to continue this fight or are you going to stare into space all day long?" immediately Naruto realised that there were more important things for him to worry about than whatever it was that attacked Sasuke… namely Sasuke himself.

"Uh, are you feeling alright?" the spiky haired youth asked him uncertainly, earning a grin off the rookie of the year.

"Better than ever," Sasuke responded with a smirk that made the blond shiver in anticipation, "now get ready… it's time I showed you why I'm called a genius."

Sakura found her blood going cold upon realising what Sasuke meant as her ears were filled with a loud chirping noise that she immediately recognised from her time in the spectator stands during the Chūnin exams.

"W-Wait! Sasuke-kun don't do this!" the pink haired genin shouted frantically as she tried to go towards him only for her to freeze upon feeling the raven haired boy direct some killing intent towards her, it was obvious to everyone that he wasn't prepared to let the young girl interfere with the fight.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" instantly Sasuke looked back towards his blond teammate only to see two of him, surprising him at the lack of numbers the boy had gone for. His surprise was further enhanced when the whiskered genin started gathering chakra into his palm where it quickly took the form of a glowing sphere of spiralling energy that was obviously being maintained by the bunshin.

"You didn't tell me you knew the Rasengan… that will make things a little easier later," Senjumaru muttered before jumping out of the way of the two forces and taking a seat on top of the entrance to the roof.

"I see you learned a new trick, well then, let's see whose is better," the currently red eyed Uchiha stated with a viscous smirk adorning his face before he charged towards the blond at an incredible speed, though the blond simply brought his spiralling sphere of chakra forward to collide with the piercing lightning.

And then just before the duo could collide, they both found their arms getting grabbed by a firm grip that immediately redirected their attacks away from each other and they instead proceeded to hit a pair of water towers causing a surprising amount of damage on both sides.

"Hey you two! You're on the roof of a hospital, don't get so heated, people inside need to rest," a tall man with spiky silver hair, wearing a standard Konoha Jōnin uniform outside of the inclusion of a fabric face mask and his Hitai-ate being slanted over his eye, said with a bored expression adorning his right eye while his tone betrayed no emotion either.

Both Naruto and Sasuke quickly pulled their hands away from the water towers before finding the one eyed man sitting on the tower that Sasuke had managed to crumple with his attack.

"Why are you so obsessed with your superiority complex Sasuke?" the Jōnin asked calmly, "that level of chidori is not an appropriate technique to use against a comrade. Were you trying to kill Naruto?"

Sakura's blood immediately grew even colder than before, to think that her teammates were actually trying to kill each other and she had been powerless to stop them.

"Where did such immature behaviour come from…" the way the oldest ninja on the roof said in a manner that made it clear it was completely rhetorical.

"Naruto! Repeat after me!" Senjumaru ordered the blond from her perch on top of the entrance.

"Sasuke!" everyone turned to face the blond that had just shouted out his opponents name, "do you really want to become as despicable as your brother just to kill him?" he asked, repeating his invisible sensei word for word.

The look that appeared on the raven haired avengers face could most definitely not be called pleasant as his mind went over the events that had led up to now and began to question his actions.

"Naruto, that's enough," the silver haired Jōnin commanded seriously only to notice his other student flee the scene, "dammit, why did Naruto have to try and complicate things even more?"

The whiskered blond simply looked at the silver haired ninja and without another word, walked towards the door as the shinigami that had entered his life hopped down from her seat and waited for him to open the door before talking to him about everything that had happened during the fight.

"Well that certainly was interesting," the two hundred year old admitted when they were out of earshot, "to think you've already managed to figure out how to counter using only your Reiryoku."

"How long were you watching me?" the spiky haired youth asked her calmly as his mind thought back on the fight or more specifically, how it ended.

"Since the beginning," she told him without any hesitation, "I wanted to see what you're capable of when facing someone closer to your own level… I'm really quite happy I did now."

"You make it sound as if you were expecting me to fight Sasuke," the whiskered child stated as he continued to walk down the stairs.

"That's because I was," the dark haired woman informed him calmly, "I know of your rivalry with Uchiha Sasuke as well as his current mental state, it was obvious that he would challenge you."

"I see… so why are you happy you watched our fight?" he asked her with hints of suspicion in his tone.

"Because I discovered that you know the Rasengan… even if it's incomplete and inefficient," she stated calmly, making the blond look at her with a twitch in his eyebrow, "I mean you require a bunshin in order to create the spiralling effect that should be really quite easy to achieve."

"So why does knowing the Rasengan mean anything to you?" he asked as calmly as he could manage.

"Because of it is based off the Bijūdama which in itself bears a striking resemblance to an advanced hollow technique we call Cero," the two hundred year old informed him seriously, making the blond blink several times.

"Wait, so are you saying you want to see if I can copy this hollow jutsu?" he asked as he stopped at the door, deciding against opening it for now.

"Normally… a shinigami is completely incapable of learning hollow abilities," she informed him, earning wide eyes from the blond, "the fact of the matter is that the very nature of a hollow and shinigami's reiryoku is so different that most of the skills between them are incompatible with each other, however I have reason to believe that training in using chakra has an effect on a person's abilities with reiryoku."

"So you think that I may be capable of using this… cero thing because I can use chakra?" the whiskered youth tried to wrap his head around exactly what the woman was implying, earning a nod of confirmation from her.

"It is possible, especially since you already have experience using something similar, though I do believe we should work on improving your skill with the Rasengan first," the shinigami informed him with a small smirk, "honestly, depending on what happens with you, we may actually start trying to recruit ninja instead of Konsō them."

"Huh? Wait, do you mean you've never tried to recruit ninja before?" Naruto asked with shock in his tone, earning a nod of confirmation from the significantly older being, "why?"

"Because normally it takes years of training to draw on a shinigami's power, far too long to be safe for a person to learn to do so in the human world," the raven haired swordswoman explained to him calmly, "however if learning how to use chakra can make obtaining shinigami powers easier and help them learn more… then it may be worth sending more scouts here to start trying to recruit those that can."

"Oh… I guess that makes sense… well except for what you said about it not being safe," the spiky haired youth admitted with a frown.

"Hollows prey on lingering souls so it is imperative to minimize the number of souls that exist in the human world," she informed him with a serious expression adorning her face.

"So if they eat human souls… why haven't we searched for any yet?" the blue eyed genin asked bluntly, earning a smirk off the older woman.

"Because when one shows up you can almost always feel it's reiatsu crash down on you," she explained with a smile, "so it is unlikely that one has appeared since you returned."

"Oh, so do you think one will appear soon?" he asked the raven haired swordswoman seriously, earning a shrug of her shoulders.

"I don't know, the rate of which hollows leave Hueco Mundo isn't something that can be predicted with any level of ease," Senjumaru admitted with a sigh, obviously unhappy with that fact.

"Huh? What's Hueco Mundo?" the confusion in Naruto's tone made the significantly older woman slap her forehead as she realised that she had never even explained _that _much to him.

"Hueco Mundo is one of the three afterlives, the one ruled by Hollows," instantly Naruto's body stiffened at the thought of these apparently evil souls all being gathered together, "and before you bother asking why we haven't invaded there and destroyed them all… well that's because of how large it is, how numerous hollows are and how powerful some of the hollows that stay there are."

"I see…" the young genin muttered quietly.

"Naruto?!" immediately his ears picked up on the familiar voice of the teammate he actually liked as she appeared at the top of the stairs and looked down on him as he simply stood by the door.

"S-Sakura-chan?" was all he managed to get out before he noticed her shaking, he could've sworn he also heard her sniffing as well.

"Why?" Naruto began to feel strange as he heard the pain contained within her voice, something he didn't know how to deal with, "why did you have to accept?"

It took a few seconds for Naruto to realise what she was talking about and when he did, he found himself growling at her question.

"I already told you why!" he nearly snapped at her, he was certain he had already made it quite clear why he wanted to fight Sasuke. To top it off Sasuke was the one that issued the challenge and then decided to use his most powerful jutsu against him, he was perfectly happy to just beat the crap out of him with his fists.

He soon cringed at her response to his statement as she began to openly cry. It was obvious to him that Senjumaru was probably more interested in his teammates hair colour than her current plight, then again that was just what he was expecting from what he had learned about her as a person… if she could even be called that when she was a shinigami.

"Why? Why is our team falling apart like this?" and that was when Naruto finally understood why Sakura was so focused on him and Sasuke fighting. He finally understood that the problem was simply that she didn't want team seven to split.

It almost made him feel warm inside that she seemed to hold him with some actual regard now, especially given her treatment of him in the academy. It was something that he found himself sympathising with, despite his apparent disdain for Sasuke, he didn't actually hate him, he simply saw him as a target he needed to surpass and be acknowledged by.

But ever since the Chūnin exams, Sasuke had changed. He could finally tell just how serious his teammates drive was driving him to extreme levels of behaviour and to make matters worse, that behaviour seemed to be centred around his older brother.

Letting out a sigh, Naruto decided to say something that made Sakura freeze in place.

"Whether team seven survives or falls apart… depends on Sasuke," he admitted in a tired tone before continuing, "I may want to prove myself against him but I am prepared to work with that ass… the problem is that he doesn't seem to feel the same way."

Silence reigned in the stairwell as the duo simply stared on with hints of depression on their faces.

"Naruto, please stop wasting time doing nothing, we still have a few hours left during which I can train you so hurry up," Senjumaru decided to say from her position beside the blond who simply let out a sigh of slight annoyance at having her ruin the atmosphere for him.

"Sorry Sakura-chan but I've got to go and see my sensei, I'm already late for my next training session," and with that, he proceeded to open the door and leave the distraught pinkette to her thoughts at the top of the stairs.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto once again found himself at the training ground that was still stained with his blood from earlier, honestly he wasn't looking forward to repeating the experience anytime soon.

"Alright, first things first, back on the roof you used a bunshin to stabilise the Rasengan you were forming," the raven haired shinigami stated seriously, earning a nod of confirmation from the blond, "now I want you to show me how good you are without a bunshin."

Naruto gave the woman a nervous nod before he proceeded to focus chakra to his palm before using his other hand to added rotation to the sphere. Putting his full concentration into trying to stabilise the violently swirling orb, the blond proceeded to run at a tree and with a great shove, only succeeded in creating a spiral shaped indent on the bark.

"Well… that was different," she admitted with a raised eyebrow at the sight of him forming the sphere with what she would personally call 'perverted hand movements'.

Naruto simply gave her a dry look as he thought back on exactly how much sweat and blood he put into learning that jutsu, sure it may have been different in execution to the one he saw Ero-sennin use but it was still the same jutsu.

"Okay, first things first, why were you groping the ball?" immediately Naruto found himself choking at her accusation.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN GROPING THE BALL?!" he shouted indignantly, he wasn't groping it, he was using his hand to add the multiple spins to the jutsu.

"What I meant was, why were you moving your hand all over it like some kind of sick pervert?" the way in which she asked made the blond shudder in rage, he was not a sick pervert dammit! The Oiroke no jutsu was just an anti-pervert jutsu that's all!

"Shut up! I have to do that to get the chakra to spin in multiple directions at the same time!" he shouted angrily, earning a couple of blinks off the two hundred year old.

"If you need the chakra to spin in multiple directions, why don't you just use the tips of your fingers instead of acting like a pervert?" silence reigned for several seconds as Naruto proceeded to take in his newest sensei's question, only for his eyes to light up and his body to shudder in excitement.

"Senjumaru-chan! You're a genius!" he shouted happily, earning a smirk off the attractive woman.

"I know I am, however that has no relevance here," she stated calmly before continuing, "after all, only an idiot couldn't figure out something as simple as that."

And instantly the whiskered genin's mood was killed by a single statement from his mentor.

"Now quit stalling and attempt the jutsu without pretending you're groping it," she commanded him calmly, earning a dejected nod from the whiskered ninja who quickly put his hand in front of his face and gripped his wrist before doing as instructed.

The results were pretty much the same as when he pawed at the orb, with the chakra visibly spinning in multiple directions before he proceeded to try and contain the chakra as best he could and charged at a tree.

The results from his latest attempt, were the same as his last one, with the jutsu simply leaving a spiral shaped impression on the bark.

"Well, now it's time for you to practice, when you've finally managed to get this jutsu down, you can proceed to start attempting to make it explode in a single direction," the dark haired shinigami stated as she pulled out her clipboard and started writing on it once again.

"Oh, okay… WAIT! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN MAKE IT EXPLODE?!" Naruto shouted at her indignantly, earning a shrug of her shoulders.

"Well that's what both a Bijūdama and Cero do, explode outwards to obliterate everything in their path," the two hundred year old shinigami admitted casually, earning a twitch off the blonds eye at the fact that _he_ was the one that was supposed to practice making volatile balls of highly condensed, spinning energy explode.

"And has it ever occurred to you that I might get hurt trying to do that?" he asked her seriously, earning another shrug off the woman that refused to look up from whatever she was writing.

"You heal fast," she stated without any hesitation.

"You sure do," came another voice that the blond immediately recognised as he turned around to face the intruder to his training session… one that was apparently spiritually aware.

"Ah, I was wondering if you were going to crash our training session, Quincy-san," and with that sentence, Naruto knew his day was just going to get worse before it got better.

XXX Omake XXX

"Is that so… then I guess there is something I can do to deal with those damn curse seals," the Quincy stated with a grin before forming a single needle out of the spirit particles contained within the air.

"I still find it impressive that you and your partner are the only Quincy that can gather Reishi without a focus," the shinigami admitted with a hint of curiosity in her voice.

"Sorry Shinigami-chan but as I've said before, the only conclusion we can come to is that it's because of our training with using chakra," the man admitted with a grin.

"And yet, you've never allowed me to study your ability in detail," the dark haired woman stated with a pout, earning a dry chuckle from the man sitting beside her.

"What can I say? I can't even stand the biannual health checks at the hospital, the idea of being put through another I could avoid doesn't appeal to me," and in that instant he flicked his wrist, releasing the spirit needle that flew with blinding speed and proceeded to hit the last Uchiha… right above the three tomoe mark that represented the curse seal.

Instantly the raven haired boy proceeded to collapse in a heap, causing the young pink haired girl to run over to him with horror on her face before checking his pulse and screaming for a doctor.

"Oh… shit, I missed," the man muttered to himself before vanishing in a burst of speed just before Naruto could look their way.

"SENJUMARU! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY TEAMMATE?!" came a roar of anger as two tails of Kyūbi's chakra proceeded to engulf the blond.

"I swear, I will make you pay for this you damn Quincy!" the ravenette shouted before finding herself running away from a red cloaked and completely enraged Jinchūriki.

XXX Meanwhile XXX

"Phew… glad I got outta there, even if it was just a false death state I don't want to be on Naruto's shit list again…" the man muttered quietly to himself.

"What the hell did you do this time?" came another voice that sounded rather pissed off.

"Sorry, it was an accident," the man said feebly before finding himself on the receiving end of quite a few punches when the village was covered by the foul chakra of the Kyūbi once again.


	7. Chapter 7

Naruto already suspected this person would appear, he was pretty sure he had seen him disappear from beside Senjumaru when the needle hit Sasuke's neck, however he didn't expect to see them this soon.

"Hey, how's it going gaki?" the man Senjumaru called Quincy-san asked with a lazy wave and a crooked grin adorning his bandaged face.

"Izumo-san, what are you doing here?" the young blond asked suspiciously, only to blink upon seeing the man's eye twitch in annoyance.

"I'm Kotetsu, not Izumo," the spiky haired man stated with a strained tone, "and as for what I'm doing here… well I guess I just got curious about what you were doing with shinigami-chan here."

And with that statement he flashed the older woman a cheeky grin only to grow despondent when she simply returned to writing on her clipboard.

"Oh come on shinigami-chan, what's with the cold shoulder?" the dark haired Chūnin asked her in an obviously fake hurt tone.

"That is easy, I don't like you," the bluntness of the oldest in the clearings statement almost made Naruto cringe as she once again went back to ignoring him as he took a seat on a part of the grass that wasn't stained with blood.

"Yeah, just like you to say it so bluntly," the laid back ninja responded before returning his attention towards the young jinchūriki, "so how does it feel to be a shinigami?"

"Uh… I guess it's alright, a little weird but not bad," the whiskered child stated uncertainly, making the older ninja smirk at his obvious discomfort talking about such a thing.

"Yeah, I'd expect it to feel weird, manipulating Reiryoku is completely different to manipulating chakra after all," the eternal Chūnin said with his grin back full force.

Naruto found himself growing more and more concerned about the other ninja in the clearing as he tried to think about exactly what they were doing there and most importantly, how they knew Senjumaru as well as they did… plus there was another question that plagued his mind.

"Um, Kotetsu… why does Senjumaru-chan keep calling you Quincy-san?" he decided to simply ask the obvious question, hoping that he would get an answer that would tell him exactly what was going on.

"Because me and Izumo are both Quincy," he said easily before deciding that he needed to extrapolate when he noticed that the blond had a lost look adorning his face, "we're basically another group of hollow hunters… the shinigami has told you about hollows right?"

Naruto found himself blinking in surprise at the Chūnin's statement, he never knew there were other types of hollow hunter around, though he knew he shouldn't have been surprised.

"Uh, yeah, they're evil souls that go around eating other souls right?" the whiskered shinigami said with a hint of uncertainty in his tone.

"Good, never know what she's told ya, despite being a so called genius, she's actually pretty forgetful at times," the older ninja said with a grin earning narrowed eyes off the oldest in the clearing, "like that time she forgot to hide her reiatsu when she was trying to pee-aarrkk!"

Naruto could only stare in disbelief as he saw one of the few adults to treat him without any form of scorn get struck by a large rock, that is before he turned to face the female shinigami who was currently holding an even bigger rock in her hands.

"Now, now Quincy-san, spreading rumours about me isn't appropriate," she said with an obviously fake pleasantness in her tone, honestly it made the blond shiver in fear… he would have to remember to not get on the woman's bad side.

"Oh, come on, how can it be a rumour when there are only three… sorry, four, people in Konoha that even know who you are?" the man with bandages on his nose asked the woman rhetorically, earning another glare off the woman.

"Hold on! You mean there's someone else in Konoha like us?" the blue eyed genin asked in shock, he hadn't expected there to be quite so many given how little he had seen up till then.

"Not quite, she's capable of seeing spirits and knows about us but that's it, she tends to just keep clear of us whenever we're doing any hollow hunting," the Chūnin stated calmly, earning a small frown off the young blond.

"So who is it?" he asked hoping he at least knew the name.

"Some sushi waitress named Kohada, really popular among the guys," the bandaged Chūnin stated with a grin, earning a blank expression off the blond.

"A sushi waitress?" Naruto found himself having a hard time believing what he had just heard, to think that of all the people in Konoha, it would be a waitress that could see spirits as opposed to a Jōnin or Kage or ANBU.

"Don't ask me how, she doesn't know how to use her Reiryoku and she never learned how to use chakra but she serves sushi with the best," Naruto couldn't stop himself from letting out a sigh of disbelief at the older ninja's words, "well, I hope you're prepared to take responsibility for my previous actions gaki."

The young blond found himself stalling at the older ninja's words before his eye started to twitch upon remembering exactly what had happened earlier with Sasuke.

"What did you do to my teammate?" he asked with a hint of a growl coming through his voice, making the dark haired Chūnin sweat a little.

"All I did was destroy a corrupting influence, that's all," Kotetsu said, earning a suspicious look off the spiky haired Jinchūriki.

"Naruto-san is unaware of the Juinjutsu Orochimaru placed on Uchiha Sasuke," Senjumaru said from the side, making Naruto look at her for confirmation, only to blink upon seeing that she had put the rock down and was back to writing on her clipboard.

"Huh? What do you mean Juinjutsu?" the jinchūriki asked with confusion clear in his tone upon hearing the shinigami's words.

"Back in training ground forty four, Orochimaru injected Uchiha Sasuke with a compound that contained traces of his chakra and soul," the dark haired woman stated calmly, "these traces were silently attacking Uchiha Sasuke's subconscious, resulting in increased aggression, desire for power and his previous goal being refocused on to the point of obsession."

Naruto could only stare in shock upon hearing what the raven haired shinigami said, why hadn't he been told about that? Why hadn't Sasuke or Sakura told him about what was happening to his teammate… or were they just as unaware of the situation as he had been?

"Do my teammates know?" he decided to ask, hoping that they were just as ignorant as he had been.

"Yes," and with that, he stopped thinking.

Nothing went through his head for several seconds before his mind started up again with several questions plaguing it... namely, why? Why hadn't they told him? Why didn't they trust him with such an important piece of information… why wasn't he being treated like a part of the team that Sakura had so desperately wanted to keep together?

The more he thought, the more he narrowed down the reasons for not telling him until he was left with just one… they didn't want to worry him.

He understood that, he hadn't even noticed that there was something wrong with Sasuke so why should they bother telling him? And what about himself? It wasn't like he wasn't keeping secrets from them, such as how he had the Kyūbi sealed within his body, how he was now a shinigami and learning how to surpass not just the Hokage but reach a level where not even the bijū could touch him… so what right did he have to condemn them for keeping things from him?

It didn't stop him from feeling angry.

Even if he was keeping secrets from them, it wasn't like he was being corrupted by some Kage murderer that had already tried to destroy the village at least once.

So with gritted teeth he stood up and walked towards a tree, his thoughts now clear on what he had to do.

"Hey, Naruto, you alright?" Kotetsu asked him from his position on the ground, earning a blank stare from the spiky haired youth.

"No… that's why I'm going to train," he responded seriously, "it'll help clear my mind."

"Well if that's the case," the dark haired Quincy started only to get cut off by a fourth voice.

"You'll be coming back to work you damn skiver!" Naruto looked towards the new voice to see the other member of the Chūnin duo, wearing his usual Chūnin uniform with a turtleneck that stretched over his chin, a bandana covering the top of his head with the Konoha hitai-ate on the forehead, while a large bang of hair covering his right eye.

"Izumo! What the hell are you doing here?!" Kotetsu asked in shock at seeing his usual partner, who simply gave him a strained smile before responding.

"What am I doing here? I'm looking for your lazy ass! Hokage-sama called for us ten minutes ago!" the more responsible of the duo shouted angrily, causing the spiky haired man's eyes to widen in shock.

"Oh shit! Sorry, looks like we'll have to cut this meeting short, we'll see ya later okay?" and with that the spiky haired man proceeded to raise to his feet.

"Yeah, and be careful around her," Izumo said seriously, "she may not look it but she's a right pervert," and with that he dodged a rock thrown at his head, "she's even tried peeking on you several times!"

Throughout the man's warning, he was left dodging the shinigami's blade, honestly surprising the blond that a human could do such a thing when she was so much older and stronger than a normal person.

"I was only trying to get a good look at the seal!" she shouted indignantly, surprising the blond with her uncharacteristic outburst.

"Yeah, sure… that's why you keep going to the hot springs every day," Kotetsu said with a wicked grin before flashing Naruto a friendly smile, "well, we'd better get going, see ya later Naruto!"

And with that the two eternal Chūnin vanished in a burst of speed, leaving a much less frustrated Naruto and a flustered shinigami alone in the training field.

Shaking his head clear, the spiky haired youth proceeded to gather chakra into his palm and without further ado, attempt to master the rasengan like he had been told to.

"It's not true," he heard the dark haired shinigami muttered loud enough for him to hear, "I'm not a pervert."

Naruto stopped when he heard the lack of conviction in her tone, something that immediately told him that she was trying to convince herself just as much as she was trying to convince him.

"Look, Senjumaru-chan… that doesn't matter," he decided to lay his thoughts on the situation out for her, "even if you're a pervert on par with ero-sennin, that doesn't change the most important thing," he proceeded to take a deep breath as he prepared himself to say the most important part of his feelings down, "you're here right now, you're trying to help me and while you may not be the best teacher around," her eyebrow twitched at his small jab at her teaching skills, "at least you're here to make sure I get it right… that's more than anyone else can say."

Senjumaru for her part simply let her posture relax, she had forgotten for a moment just how little instruction the blond had received from his previous teachers and while her method of teaching him how to use a sword may not be the most pleasant experience, it did get results.

So obviously he would be prepared to ignore any of her more… unsavoury traits as long as they weren't too harmful.

"I see… thank you for giving me your confidence," she said calmly as he proceeded to return to his rasengan training.

"No problem, Senjumaru-chan."

XXX XXX XXX

Sasuke couldn't stop himself from grimacing as he sat alone in one of Konoha's parks… well, one of the trees in the park anyway.

_Do you really want to become as despicable as your brother just to kill him?!_

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get those words out of his head. It was a question he had never thought of before, one that the deadlast of the year had asked him when he was so close to losing himself… and it hurt.

Was he really becoming as bad as his brother? Would killing him like that really be a good thing? He was an avenger so shouldn't he be thinking of his family that had died when fighting Itachi instead of thinking of how much he hated his brother for what he had done?

He didn't know what to do anymore. He had been thinking of seeing if that Orochimaru person had kept his offer of training extended because it was clear that he wasn't getting the correct training here in Konoha… but then he wouldn't be much different from his brother if he did that… was it really worth it?

So caught up in his thoughts, he was unprepared when a series of wires wrapped around him, pinning him to the tree he was using as a place to think.

Looking forward, he was greeted by a sight he didn't want to see right now.

"What's the meaning of this?!" he asked through gritted teeth as he stared at his sensei, the very person that had taught him the Chidori not two months ago.

"If I didn't do this then you'd just run away, you're not the sort to just sit here while I preach," Kakashi said with a blank expression that was mostly hidden by his mask, "Sasuke, quit seeking revenge."

Sasuke found his mind discarding the hesitation that had been building upon hearing those words… what did that man know of what he'd been through? Who was he to think he had the right to tell him to give up?

"In this line of work, I've seen just how bad people like you can get," the silver haired Jōnin stated, remembering some of the revenge driven ninja he had seen drive themselves to destruction, "in the end, those that tasted revenge were not satisfied and it ended in tragedy."

Sasuke didn't care what the man said, he didn't know what it was like to face the man that slaughtered your entire family, he didn't know how deep his thirst for vengeance was.

"You'll only hurt and suffer more and even if you succeed… you'll only be left empty," Kakashi stated, hoping that he was getting through to his wayward student.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW!" and he finally snapped, "what if I were to kill the one you love the most? How far would you stray from what you've just said?" Kakashi had to admit, he did not like the look in his dark haired students eyes, "I can make you feel true pain."

Kakashi hoped that what he was about to say would get through to the genin just how similar they actually were, "that would work, however unfortunately for me, no such person exists… those people have already been killed."

And there it was, the shock that Kakashi was hoping would appear in the teens eyes, "I've lived in a long and hard era, I understand how terrible true pain and loss is… but at least we aren't the worst off," and he hoped that his next words would make the raven haired youth think long and hard about his place in life, "both you and I have found precious companions."

Sasuke found himself thinking on the two people that had somehow managed to worm their way into his heart over the past few months… Naruto and Sakura, no matter how hard he thought, he knew that he considered them friends even if he didn't associate with them for the most part.

"You should know from your loss, that the Chidori is a power given to you because you found things that are important to you," Kakashi started before loosening the wire he had been using to keep the Uchiha in place, "that power is not something to be used against your friends or for revenge, you should know what that power should be used for."

And then Kakashi vanished in a swirl of leaves with a single parting sentence.

"Think hard on if you can or cannot hold true to what I've said."

"Dammit…" that was the first thing to come out of the raven haired Uchiha's mouth upon his sensei's disappearance, today had been too much, first Naruto's question and now Kakashi's lecture… they were just too much for him to handle right now.

But the Jōnin was definitely right about one thing… he needed to think hard and come to his decision about what to do from here on out.

XXX XXX XXX

"Aaarrrgghhh!" came the loud yell as Naruto once again tried to break a tree with his incomplete rasengan, only to once again fail at the task and leave nothing more than a spiral shaped groove in the bark.

It had been nearly three hours since he had started this training session and he had to admit… he wasn't progressing at all.

Unfortunately, Senjumaru had never used chakra herself and was therefore only capable of giving him vague instructions on what he should be aiming to do, then again, vague instructions were better than the complete lack of instructions he received off his godfather.

He still found it frustrating to fail the technique so many times.

Senjumaru for her part was contemplating informing him about the memory transfer aspect of the kage bunshin, however she was pretty sure that his level with the bunshin technique itself wasn't quite high enough to really make decent use of it to train, plus there was no guarantee he wouldn't be called out on a mission at a moment's notice, not with the current state of affairs the village was in, so allowing him to completely destroy his chakra and stamina reserves in an instant was not a good idea.

It would probably be better to just let him train normally until the ninja forces had rebuilt and he was no longer at risk of being called on any time.

"Well, it looks like you still haven't quite got the hang of the jutsu yet," the raven haired shinigami said calmly as she rose from her position on the floor.

Naruto for his part just grit his teeth in frustration, to think he had finally found out how Jiraiya had done the rasengan and he was failing to achieve the completed variant despite his best attempts… he just didn't know what he was doing wrong.

"Dammit… what am I doing wrong?" he muttered to himself, though he was easily heard by the two hundred year old.

"It is possible that you aren't doing anything wrong," she stated calmly, making him look at her with confusion on his face, "the fact is that you are unused to using the jutsu in that manner and simply getting the process correct does not mean that you will necessarily get the same results."

"Huh?" Naruto knew he should've understood what she was telling him but in the end, he didn't possess a particularly good education, even if he wouldn't enjoy admitting it.

"Basically, I am saying that it is possible that all you need is practice…" upon finishing her statement, her face lit up with an expression of understanding before a grin adorned her face, "Naruto-san, have you ever tried performing the rasengan without applying the first stage?"

Naruto found himself wondering exactly what she was asking him, why wouldn't he use the first stage? It was one of the three most important stages of the rasengan and necessary for it to be the jutsu the Yondaime had created.

"No, why would I?" he asked her with his confusion clear on his face.

"You have the first two stages of the rasengan down… the problem is the third stage," Senjumaru started to explain to him, "so instead of trying to get the third stage down while focusing on the first two, attempt to master it without the spinning and then apply the first stage to the overall result."

Naruto found his eyes widening at her explanation as he finally understood exactly what she was telling him to do.

"Alright! Then let's get this on!" and without further ado, the blond proceeded to push chakra above his palm and create a shell with which to keep it stable, before thrusting it towards a tree… where the orb immediately burst like a water balloon.

"See, you need to learn how to stabilize the shell, then you can start adding the spinning to it," the raven haired shinigami stated calmly, making the blond put on another determined face as he once again got down to training, his goal of completing the rasengan one handed firmly held in his mind.

"Uh… Naruto-san, perhaps you should attempt this tomorrow, it is getting late," the oldest of the two in the clearing stated blankly, earning a deadpan off the blond.

"You've just given me a breakthrough and now you're saying 'go to bed'?" he asked bluntly, earning a shrug off the woman.

"Well, to be fair it is possible that you'll be assigned a mission at any time, so training yourself into the ground is not something that you should aim to do," she informed him calmly, making the blond blink at her statement as he thought about it.

Konoha was still recovering from the Suna and Oto invasion, its forces were stretched thin and the chances were that lower ranked ninja would end up having to do missions that were a little more difficult than normal.

Letting out a sigh, he decided to say one last thing to the shinigami that had been watching him.

"Then give me one hour, then I'll go back," he said with determination in his voice, making the raven haired shinigami nod in acceptance.

"I will hold you to that," and with that said, the blond returned to his practice, his goal simply to get the shell of the rasengan down.

XXX XXX XXX

Sasuke was not having a good time.

To think he had just been attacked by four Oto nin who had easily overcome him… even showing him just how weak his Juinjutsu was right now.

He knew there was something different about his seal from the last time he had used it, the exact nature of the difference wasn't something he could identify but it was there.

The important part however, was that they had extended Orochimaru's offer to join him in exchange for power.

But was it worth it?

_Do you really want to become as despicable as your brother just to kill him?!_

Those words still haunted him.

Why? Why were they making him hesitate so much? Why would going to Orochimaru make him as bad as Itachi?

As if he didn't know. Itachi was a traitor that slaughtered his family and right now, the raven haired Uchiha had been considering defecting from Konoha, which would've resulted in a team being sent to follow him, he understood that much and given the strength of the four Oto nin that had attacked him, he was unsure if the team sent would survive… he could potentially be killing his comrades by leaving the village.

But the gap between him and his brother wasn't decreasing, if anything it was increasing and the young genin couldn't bring himself to dismiss an offer by one of the strongest ninja Konoha had ever produced.

Then his eyes turned hard.

He had listened to Kakashi's preaching earlier, he knew the man believed that vengeance wasn't worth the pain it would cause… but he had another goal, one to strive towards once his revenge had been completed so he knew that he would be capable of moving past it.

But he couldn't complete his other goal if Itachi was still alive, not without having that shadow hanging over him and threatening to destroy everything again.

And so he rose to his feet and walked towards his home… where he would prepare himself to leave.

XXX XXX XXX

Senjumaru had to admit, Naruto really was interesting, it had been nearly an hour and the blond was actually making visible progress with the shell, namely that it was no longer bursting as soon as it hit the tree, managing to survive about a second of pressing before it lost its form.

Honestly she believed that if he could manage that, he could probably use a serviceable version of the jutsu, even if it wouldn't be quite right.

"Naruto-san," she decided to call out to him, making him stall in his latest attempt, "would you please attempt to use the full version of the rasengan now?"

The blond for his part simply blinked before giving her a frown even if he nodded his head in affirmation.

Focusing the chakra into his hand, he created a shell to keep all the chakra inside before he started to make the chakra inside rotate at the tip of each finger and over his palm, creating a violent maelstrom of spinning chakra inside the orb of energy.

Keeping most of his focus on the shell, he proceeded to charge the tree with the orb in his hand before slamming it against the bark.

For nearly a second he could tell the attack was grinding away at the wood before the shell burst and the maelstrom was release, created a spiral grove where the attack had struck.

Looking at his handiwork, he was left with wide eyes upon seeing the significantly increased damage he had managed to achieve with his most recent attempt at the jutsu.

Sure he knew the attack should've gone straight through the target but it was a massive improvement on what he could manage before.

"That is good to see," he heard his new sensei say calmly as she analysed the damage inflicted on the bark of the tree, "it would appear that focusing on learning how to maintain the shell alone is dramatically increasing the level of the jutsu."

Naruto could do nothing more than grin, happy that he was finally beginning to master the rasengan, sure he still had a long way to go but it was significantly better than his need for a Kage Bunshin just to use it at all… sure he was certain he would need to use a bunshin if he wanted to use it in battle right now but at least he was making progress.

"And that is an hour up," he was broken from his thoughts by the female shinigami's statement, making him remember what he had said earlier.

"Alright, then it's time to go home," he said with satisfaction clear in his tone at the progress he had made today.

"Yes... tell me, have I ever told you about shunpo?" she asked him, thinking that since it was a technique designed for movement, learning how to do it while walking wasn't such a bad idea.

"Huh? No, what's that?" the whiskered jinchūriki asked, earning a smirk off the much older woman.

"It is a high speed movement technique, I'd probably say it is similar in effect to Shunshin but completely different in execution," she explained, earning a focused stare off the blond as he thought about the highly utilized jutsu.

"So why shouldn't I just learn Shunshin instead?" he asked her calmly, earning a smirk off the woman.

"Because it is well known that using shunshin in combat is difficult… using Shunpo in battle is normal," she explained, making the blonds eyes widen and sparkle.

"So when are you going to teach it to me?" he asked excitedly.

"Right now."

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto had to admit, Shunpo was surprisingly easy to get down… the problem was his level with the technique, namely that he could only flash a few feet in whatever direction he aimed,, as opposed to the dozens of feet that Senjumaru was capable of.

Though at least she seemed impressed that he managed to get the technique at all… though that made him wonder if he had learned the technique quicker than a normal shinigami or if she had simply expected him to suck at it.

Obviously, he was hoping for the first one.

But that didn't change one simple fact… now that he was back he was left wondering one thing.

"Hey, Senjumaru-chan… where are you going to stay?" he asked the shinigami with his confusion clear in his voice, only to start feeling nervous upon seeing the mischievous smirk that adorned her face.

"Why, I'm going to stay here of course," she said so in such a matter of fact manner that Naruto was left speechless, the sheer fact that she didn't even bother asking him if it was alright made him feel like he was just being taken advantage of.

"Wait? What do you mean stay here?! I only have one bed!" he shouted angrily, briefly hoping that his neighbours couldn't hear him.

"You never complained about sharing it with me before," and with that the blond fell silent.

"S-share it with you? When the hell did I ever sleep with you?!" he asked angrily, earning a light smile off the raven haired beauty.

"Oh, I lost count but most nights since you were seven years old," and once again Naruto was shocked out of his anger as he finally realised exactly what she was saying.

"W-w-w-w-w-wait! You mean you've… been… sleeping with me for that long?" he was sure his face was probably so red it would make blood look green.

And then it happened.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Naruto was once again shocked out of his stupor upon seeing the woman laugh her ass off, making his eyes narrow as she finally regained her breath, "y-you should've seen the look on your face… priceless."

And with that Naruto finally realised exactly what had happened.

"You were lying weren't you?" he asked seriously, earning a nod of acknowledgement off the shinigami as she finally managed to straighten her posture again.

"Yes, I was lying, it was just too perfect an opportunity to ignore," she stated as calmly as she could, though she still had a satisfied smirk adorning her lips, "to answer your question seriously, I usually just sleep on the sofa in the Hokage's office, however since I'm supposed to be training you, I need to be here to get you in the case of a hollow attack."

That explanation made sense to him and his previous shock at her decision to stay in his apartment was replaced by understanding, however there was still one problem with that.

"And where exactly are you going to sleep?" he asked seriously, earning a smirk off the shinigami.

"Well, there are two options, either in your bed," she had to suppress a giggle upon seeing him flush again upon hearing that prospect, "and the other is in the sleeping bag you have for missions."

And with his mind reminded of that option, the blond immediately calmed down as he decided exactly what the sleeping arrangement would be.

"Alright, you can take the bed, I'll take the sleeping bag," he said with a nod, earning a couple of blinks off the significantly older shinigami.

"Are you certain? This is your house and you did not invite me to stay here," she stated calmly, earning a nod off the blond.

"Yeah, you're training me right? I think I've made more progress under you than I ever had under anyone else so I think it's only right that you get the bed," the spiky haired youth stated with a determined expression, earning a nod of acceptance from her.

"I see, then thank you for your hospitality," she said with a light smile.

How nice it would be to sleep in a proper bed for once.

"No problem, well, I'll talk to ya tomorrow Senjumaru-chan," and with that the blond made his way to the bedroom to find his sleeping bag for the night.


	8. Chapter 8

Uzumaki Naruto was not a morning person.

Senjumaru knew that, so it was no surprise when she noted just how grumpy he appeared when he was awoken by a loud and incessant banging on his door.

"Who the hell's knocking on my door at this time in the morning?" he grumbled to himself, earning an amused smile off the much older being.

It was when he opened the door and saw Shikamaru standing there in a Chūnin jacket that his grumpiness vanished.

He knew that there was no way Shikamaru of all people would bang on his front door at this time in the morning without a good reason… hell, he would probably need a good reason to simply consider it worth the effort to bang on his door so incessantly OR so early, let alone both together.

"Sasuke's left to join Orochimaru," one sentence, that was all it took to made the spiky haired youth freeze as memories of the previous day popped into his head.

Memories of how Sasuke seemed to be growing more and more aggressive, of hearing about how Orochimaru put some type of mark on the boy.

And now he was hearing that Sasuke was leaving to join the bastard that murdered the Sandaime Hokage and tried to kill the woman that was now the Godaime? He just couldn't believe it.

"Wait right there, I gotta change!" and without a second thought he closed the door and prepared himself to get dressed and retrieve the person he had thought of like a brother… and annoying older brother that was always ahead of him sure, but a brother none the less.

"I take it you're going to be leaving Konoha to retrieve your teammate?" Senjumaru asked from her seated position on his bed, earning a determined nod off the boy who ignored the fact that the woman was there and simply changed as quickly as he could… he didn't have time to worry about modesty if Sasuke was going to Orochimaru, "then I wish you luck, unfortunately I cannot go too far from Konoha due to my allocation, so you will be on your own."

"No, I'll have whatever team Shikamaru gets together with me," he stated with a serious look on his face as he finished getting changed.

"I will say this though, don't practice anything during your pursuit, you never know how much of your Chakra or Reiryoku you will need for the upcoming fights," she informed him, earning a curious glance from the boy, "from what I've heard, Orochimaru considers Sasuke one of his prime objectives, that means he will have probably sent his own ninja to make sure he makes the journey to him."

Naruto's visage turned grim at that piece of logic and he gave a quick nod to the shinigami before turning to go out of his apartment.

"And just remember, if you die then you can always join the thirteen divisions," she said with a beatific smile on her face, making the blond stumble before letting his temper get the best of him.

"LIKE HELL I'M GOING TO LET MYSELF DIE FOR A STUPID REASON LIKE THAT!" and then he was off.

Senjumaru could do nothing more than blink owlishly at his outburst before a small grin formed on her face.

"My, he certainly is easy to tease isn't he," she muttered to herself before deciding that she should probably get out of bed… before ignoring that decision and letting herself savour the comfort of a proper bed some more.

XXX XXX XXX

"Who were you talking to before you left?" Shikamaru asked the whiskered blond as they rushed along the street towards the next member of the squad he was going to be creating.

Naruto for his part found himself growing cold upon hearing that question leave the pineapple haired boy's question, he had forgotten that he may have been capable of hearing him.

The problem was that he didn't know how to answer the question, after all, how was he going to tell the genius something capable of placating him without letting anything slip.

"It was just someone I know that didn't have anywhere to stay," he decided to go for that vague answer, hoping that the newly promoted Chūnin wouldn't question it any further.

"I see," was all the Nara heir said, it was clear to him that Naruto was hiding something but the problem was quite simply 'what was he hiding?'

He would just have to watch the blond and hope that whatever was going on with him wouldn't adversely affect the mission and the team he would collect.

"So Shikamaru… what are the chances of us running into Oto-nin?" Naruto asked, making the genius raise an eyebrow at the mere fact that Naruto of all people was actually asking a relevant question.

"High," the Chūnin stated earning a grimace off the blond, "Orochimaru has apparently had his sights on the sharingan for a long time, so there is no way he hasn't sent someone to escort Sasuke to him."

Naruto couldn't stop himself from grimacing at what Shikamaru had told him, it definitely added up with what he had heard from Senjumaru and normally he would welcome the chance to test his mettle against other ninja but this was different, this time his aim was to make sure Sasuke didn't make the biggest mistake of his life and these ninja would be there just to make sure he would fail.

"But don't worry, I've got a team of super ninja in my mind that'll be helping us with this mission," and suddenly Naruto felt less nervous about the mission than he had since he was selected to participate in the Uchiha's retrieval.

XXX XXX XXX

Naruto couldn't stop himself from glancing at his teammates in disappointment.

Chōji, Kiba and Neji.

Chōji, someone who didn't even make it to the finals of the Chūnin exams, Kiba, who he beat with a fart in the preliminaries and Neji… well Neji was actually pretty damn good but he still beat him in the Chūnin exam finals.

"I thought you said you were picking a team of super ninja for this mission?" Naruto asked the genius strategist with a deadpan that didn't normally sit on his face.

"Given that I was restricted to Genin, I think this is a pretty super team," the dark haired boy admitted with a certain level of amusement at Naruto's reaction.

"I guess you're right, so then, let's get this over with," the spiky haired youth stated with a determined glint in his eye.

"Naruto? Are you feeling alright?" Kiba asked suddenly, making the blond blink a couple of times at the fact that he was being asked something like that.

"Huh? Why are you asking?" he retorted, earning a silent agreement from the others around him.

"Because you're not normally this quiet," Naruto had to blink at the simple explanation and given how the rest of the group seemed so concerned about him, he decided to give them a basic idea of what he'd been through.

"Sorry, during my last mission… I sorta died," he admitted, earning wide eyes from the others, "then when I got back, lots of things came to light and well… I've just had a bad week."

"I can imagine," Chōji muttered as he popped some more food into his mouth.

"Will this affect your performance?" Shikamaru decided to ask, earning a nod off the spiky haired blond.

"Yeah, I'm a hell of a lot stronger now than I was a week ago," the confidence in his tone made the rest pause, "my new sensei's done more for me in the past two days than Ero-sennin did for me in two months."

"I see, well I guess it's good you're so confident but we need to strategize first," Shikamaru decided to cut the conversation about his underling short before they wasted anymore time.

"Alright we'll follow a straight line formation with Kiba up front, with his knowledge of the surrounding terrain and his nose, tracking Sasuke and picking up traps should be easiest for him," the pineapple haired Chūnin stated seriously, earning a nod off the feral boy.

"I'll be next in line, it'll give me the best position to give orders both to Kiba via speech and everyone else via hand signs," once again everyone else listened and nodded in agreement at his decision.

"Third is Naruto, since he has quick reactions he can cover both front and rear, especially with his shadow clones," the grin that adorned the whiskered blonds face upon hearing Shikamaru's analysis was clear to everyone.

"Fourth is Chōji, as the heavy hitter it'll be best if me, Kiba and Naruto create openings for him to take when he has a chance," once more everyone gave understanding nods at the Chūnin's decision, "and at the back I'll trust Neji to take the most difficult position as rear guard, with his Byakugan it should allow him to check the groups blind spots."

"I want everyone to also focus on a single area in their searching, Kiba will keep an eye on front, I'll keep a wider line of sight to catch anything in his blind spots, Naruto will cover our left, Chōji will cover the right and Neji will focus behind us, does everyone understand their roles?"

Earning several nods of acceptance from the group, the dark haired team leader let out a small grin, "alright, before we head out I need an idea of what everyone is capable of so let me see what equipment you've packed, I'll only take three minutes."

"Wait," the call was subdued but clear and Naruto found himself inwardly cringing upon hearing it… after all, she was one of those people that kept him in the dark about Sasuke's condition.

"Sakura-chan…" the blond muttered as he looked at his female teammate walking towards the group, her head held low and her eyes devoid of the spark of life they usually possessed.

"I heard the story from Hokage-sama," Naruto couldn't stop himself from focusing on what Shikamaru was saying, "I can't take you on this mission."

Naruto inwardly wondered why Shikamaru was saying such a thing to her, until he added more to the end of his sentence.

"Even you couldn't convince him to stay right?" the look in the pink haired girls eyes was enough to make Naruto's heart wretch in his chest, "it seems like we've gotta force him to understand, your job is done."

The whiskered jinchūriki could do little more than stare at the revelation that Sakura had already met with Sasuke and had failed to keep him in Konoha.

"Naruto…" Sakura's voice called out, broken and clearly crying, "I beg you… please, please bring Sasuke-kun back! I couldn't do it, I couldn't stop him, please.. you're the only one that can probably save him… please."

The newly fledged shinigami found himself unable to respond to her plea, if he had been ignorant of the Juinjutsu Orochimaru had placed on his teammate then he would've made the promise without hesitation, but even if the influence had been destroyed, it had already had two months to attack his teammates mind and turn him against everyone he knew.

"I'll try," he admitted, "but I don't know how far gone he is… not with that seal Orochimaru placed on him."

Sakura froze upon hearing her teammates words, she was certain he didn't know about that and yet it appeared that he did.

"Come on, we've wasted enough time right?" the whiskered teen stated as he turned his back on his loyal teammate as he prepared himself for what was to come.

"Yeah, let's hurry," and with Shikamaru's agreement, the group of five started their dash to reach their former comrade.

XXX XXX XXX

"I can smell five ninja including Sasuke," Kiba eventually called out after a couple of hours, "they were fight two other ninja but the five are getting further away from the smell of blood… what's our plan?"

"I see, so there are other ninja assisting Sasuke," Shikamaru stated before growing silent as he thought on the situation.

"We're going after Sasuke right?" Naruto asked with a certain edge to his tone, he was here to rescue his teammate and didn't want to lose the trail because of some distraction caused by the enemy.

"… Yeah, if we waste time gathering information then they may cross the border before we can reach them and we don't have clearance to follow them past it," the dark haired Chūnin admitted, earning a grin off the blond.

"Alright then, let's hurry up and catch the bastards," the whiskered teen said with a small growl in his tone, "and then show them what happens to those that pick a fight with Konoha."

"Heh, damn right," Kiba responded before his eyes went wide, "hey! The stench of the enemy is all over this place!"

"EVERYONE STOP!" the team leader shouted, causing everyone to stop themselves within a second, "look up there."

Naruto looked and immediately noted the explosive tag attached to the large tree not that far in front of them.

"Explosive seals," Neji stated with his Byakugan activated, "I see five more of them in a barrier seal formation."

"Barrier seal?" Chōji muttered in a questioning manner, making Shikamaru explain what he knew of the trap.

"It's a form of specialised trap, triggered when the enemy enters the area between the tags," his voice was calm but held a hint of nervousness to it as he analysed the technique, "in my dad's book, it says it's a high class ninjutsu."

"Damn, so you're saying we have no other way forward than to flank it?" Kiba muttered before the group started to make their way around the trap.

"Dammit, another trap," Naruto muttered as he walked through the foliage with the rest of the team, avoiding every trip wire they could find.

"Hey, Naruto, watch your step, there's a wire right there," Kiba pointed out to the blond who simply looked down to see a rather poorly hidden wire, like so many before it, "you better not trigger it."

"I know, I know," the shinigami muttered under his breath as he prepared to walk over the wire.

"Naruto wait!" and without getting a chance to put his foot down, the blond found himself frozen in place, in a position that he was certain wasn't actually possible for him to remain still in, "phew, just in time with the Kage Mane no Jutsu."

Naruto soon found himself pulled out of the position, courtesy of the shadow users technique before having the real trap pointed out.

"One of the wires is made visible by reflecting sunlight while the other is camouflaged in green, pretty good for a rushed job, which only means," Shikamaru started.

"They are resting," Neji finished for him, "either they're wounded or it's a trap."

Without another word the Hyūga prodigy focused his eyes far ahead before letting out a simple statement that put the rest of the group on edge.

"Alright then, let's bring Sasuke back," the whiskered blond stated with a grin.

"Sorry but it's my turn to show off a new move," the Inuzuka heir said with a feral grin adorning his face.

"Me too," Chōji decided to add his own two cents to the situation.

"Let's not be too hasty, first I have to prepare the plan of engagement," Shikamaru stated with a confidence he didn't normally have.

XXX XXX XXX

"Dammit!" Shikamaru could not believe the situation the team was in right then, his plan should've worked and would've against any normal ninja but he hadn't accounted for these opponents being the kind that possessed unique abilities.

"Hey, Shikamaru," Naruto started, earning everyones attention, "that guy was around about here wasn't he?"

Shikamaru found himself blinking owlishly at the blonds question as he pointed towards the part of the wall that he believed the enemy had started but wasn't entirely sure.

"Yeah but how do you plan on doing with that information?" the only Chūnin in the group asked, earning a grin from the blond as he unsheathed his blade for the first time in a real battle.

"Come on dobe, do you really think a sword can cut… through…" Kiba started only to low steam upon seeing the blond slice through the stone prison like a hot knife through butter.

"WHAT THE?!" the largest of the four Oto ninja could be heard shouting as the blond sliced a hole in the dome that was being used to capture the group, "how did you do that?!"

"There's nothing my sword can't cut," Naruto knew that wasn't entirely true, Senjumaru had explained that it was all to do with the quantity of Reiryoku in an object and that the more reiryoku there was in an object, the harder it would be for his Zanpakutō to cut it but chakra was unrelated to reiryoku so he didn't have to worry about something like that.

The growl that escaped the Oto ninja's lips made it clear he wasn't at all happy with that explanation and looking at him showed why.

He was missing most of his right hand with only his thumb left attached to his arm.

"HE'S MINE!" and before anyone could respond, Kiba was already charging at the opponent who simply scowled before clenching his left fist and preparing to punch the Inuzuka away as soon as he got close enough.

"Kiba stop!" Shikamaru shouted, after all, despite the enemy lacking one hand and therefore, incapable of using anymore jutsu unless he knew one handed seals or sealless jutsu, he was still clearly powerful enough to break bones with a simple punch.

Then the feral genin went flying.

"Argh!" the scream of pain that filled the air upon the Oto nin striking Kiba was enough to make the other members of the team flinch.

"Kiba, are you alright?" the shadow user asked, earning a small groan from the reckless genin.

"He doesn't have any real injuries, he managed to angle his body away from the strike just before it hit so it was only a glancing blow," Neji stated calmly as his eyes analysed the situation.

"That's good," the leader of the mission stated as he took in the state of his enemy, his eyes, darting to the sliced apart hand and the angry scowl on the man's face, "Chōji, do you think you could hold him back?"

Naruto froze at Shikamaru's question, the fact that Shikamaru was asking something like that meant that he intended on having the rest of the team carry on despite the enemy before them.

"Shikamaru! What're you saying?!" the blond demanded, earning a calculating gaze from the only Chūnin in the group.

"Naruto, we need to continue, the longer we waste here, the further ahead the enemy will manage to take Sasuke," the tactical genius stated seriously, "Chōji is the one of us most capable of dealing with this guy's strength and all he has to do is survive and the injury you inflicted on him will weaken him until he eventually dies of blood loss."

Naruto couldn't stop himself from cringing at that statement, he knew they didn't know what killing meant, then again, if Senjumaru did manage to find a way of making ninja shinigami then it was possible that they wouldn't have to pay for their sins.

He knew that if he did end up killing someone then since he didn't need to undergo Konsō he could move on to soul society anyway and join up with the thirteen divisions… not that he wanted to do so anytime soon but it would happen at some point, of that he was sure.

"I understand," he finally managed to force out of his mouth and despite the guilt he felt at allowing Chōji to face an enemy that was probably stronger than him despite being weakened… he forced himself to run in the same direction as the enemies had left.

He briefly heard Shikamaru tell his childhood friend to win and catch up with them when he had the chance before they were all a reasonable distance away from the site of the battle.

A loud crash sounded as the team started their chase of the rest of their foes, indicating that the battle between Chōji and his opponent had truly started in earnest.

"Hey Shikamaru? Do you really think Chōji stands a chance against this enemy?" Kiba asked as he rubbed his shoulder, obviously still feeling the pain from the previous hit he took from the foe.

"Yeah, despite what everyone thinks… Chōji is probably the strongest one of us," he stated with confidence brimming in his tone.

"Alright, I guess we'll just have to trust you," Naruto responded before focusing in front once again.

"Is it just me, or is the enemy not laying traps anymore?" Kiba asked as they managed to cut the distance between themselves and the foes they were pursuing.

"They're underestimating us, they're expecting only that big guy to be coming after them and no one would set traps for their comrades," Shikamaru stated, earning a scowl off the whiskered jinchūriki at the thought of being underestimated again.

"If that's the case then we have a chance," Neji pointed out, earning a grin off the leader of the squad.

"Yeah, let's get them while they're vulnerable," and with that another plan was hatched.

XXX XXX XXX

Shikamaru was beginning to get annoyed.

This was the second of his plans that fell apart due to lack of information, he didn't expect the big guy to be as confrontational as he apparently was.

The good thing however was that both Naruto and Neji had an advantage over this enemy.

Apparently this spider-like ninja had never experienced having his web like ninjutsu cut before.

Unfortunately, this one hadn't lost any appendages to Naruto's sword and wouldn't bleed out sooner or later.

"Everyone, go," Neji stated seriously, making the rest of the team look at him in shock, "Uzumaki may be capable of cutting this enemies technique as well, but my Byakugan makes me the better option for dealing with their mobility."

The team noted how Akamaru seemed to be hiding from the foe and Kiba decided to make it clear what that meant.

"Neji, Akamaru says this guy is stronger, much stronger than the last one," the spiky haired Inuzuka stated seriously, "do you think you can beat him?"

"That doesn't matter, what matters is that the longer we're stuck here, the further away our enemies get," the Hyūga genius stated seriously, "and you'll need everyone you can get to take on the rest and deal with Sasuke."

Naruto couldn't stop himself from feeling powerless at the situation, if only he had been training under Senjumaru for a month instead of just two days, he was certain he'd be capable of beating all four of these enemies at the same time, his current increase in strength from just those two days was just so great that there was no way a month of training under her wouldn't make him a match for these foes.

"Naruto," the oldest of the group started, gaining the blonds attention, "Sasuke is currently within the darkness… if anyone can help him see the light, it's you, now go!"

Without wasting any more time, Naruto, Shikamaru and Kiba all started their charge away from the enemy, trusting Neji to watch their backs.

XXX XXX XXX

Chōji had to admit, his enemy had been strong… really strong even if he only had one hand.

He was certain he would've had to take the red pill if his enemy hadn't been bleeding out for most of the fight.

As it stood he had been forced to take the yellow pill to survive long enough for his enemy to lose all his strength and allow a final blow.

But there was one thing he knew, he promised Shikamaru that he would win and catch up and despite the pain he was feeling from taking the yellow pill… he knew he could do it.

And so he started at top speed in the direction his friends had left, following the arrows Shkamaru had left behind for him.

He wouldn't let his friends down.

Because they were the most important things to him, of that there was no doubt.


End file.
